./ 



4 £>/ L 




THE 



Land of the Nile; . 

OR, 

« 



By 

W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS, 

Author of "Buried Cities of Ca}nJ>a?iia,'' " bightkoMfses and Li^htsJiips,. 
" Queen of (Jie Adriatic," 6rc, Grc. 



Wiith One $)ant)rei) (Engrabmgs. 



LONDON: 

T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW; 
EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK. 



I. 



/ 





F Egypt presents no other attractions, the cer- 
tainty, says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, that it is 
the oldest State of which we have any positive 
and tangible records, must awaken feelings 
of interest to which no contemplative mind can remain 
indifferent. The most remote point in its annals to 
hich its extant monuments refer us, opens with a 
aation possessing all the arts of civilized life already 
matured ; but though stretching so far back into the 
early history of the world, we still find the infancy of 
the Egyptian State is placed far beyond our reach. All 
we know is, that it was far advanced in all those arts and 
sciences which contribute so greatly to the comfort and 
adornment of social life — that it had a profound creed, 
a consummate polity, a fixed government, and immense 
material resources at an epoch when Jacob and his sons 
were pasturing their flocks in the land of Canaan. 

But not only is the history of Egypt a theme of the 
highest interest in itself, and in its relations to the 
general history of the world, the remains which exist of 




vi 



PRE FA CE. 



its tombs, temples, palaces, and monuments are neither 
less valuable nor less important. The architectural 
memorials of Greece and Rome may exhibit a more 
aesthetic feeling, but they can never claim the considera- 
tion from the philosopher or the student which he will 
always pay to those of Ancient Egypt. Our knowledge 
of Greek and Roman life is chiefly obtained from other 
sources ; our knowledge of Egyptian life can be derived 
only from the Egyptian sculpture or painting on the walls 
of the tomb, palace, and temple. From this sculpture, 
from this painting it is that we learn how high a stand- 
ard of civilization had been attained by at least one 
great nation in those ages of the world which seem to 
the ignorant to belong to its very infancy. And we 
know that to this strange and mysterious nation Greece 
owed much of her highest philosophy as well as of her 
scientific resources ; that Rome borrowed from Greece ; 
and that through both Rome and Greece the West has 
been permeated with the influence originally springing 
from the " Land of the Nile." 

But besides her history and her antiquities, Egypt 
offers us for study her abundant animal life, her sad and 
solemn scenery. Above all, she offers to us whatever of 
romance, and mystery, and beauty — of grandeur and 
sublimity — is associated with the great river of the Old 
World, the ever-famous Xile. 

It is not a matter of wonder, then, that Egypt has 
attracted the attention of so many travellers, or that so 
copious a literature has sprung up in reference to its his- 
tory, religion, art, science, and industry. It is scarcely 
a matter of wonder, that, bewitched and beguiled by the 



PRE FA CE. 



vii 



romance of their subject, so many writers have wandered 
into a region of dreams and visions, and evolved out of 
their own consciousness an Ancient Egypt which never 
existed — a grand historical panorama based on no solid 
foundations. And it is not a matter of wonder that 
every year adds to the host of travellers, historians, and 
philosophical speculators, who concern themselves with a 
land which never wearies the fancy, and with antiquities 
which offer — now as always — an inexhaustible field for 
the most ingenious conjectures. 

To the literature of which we speak the present 
volume, however, is a very modest contribution ; and 
whatever value it possesses, we cheerfully acknowledge, 
will be due to the works of our predecessors. It has 
not been our object to draw up a record of personal 
experiences — of books of this kind surely the world has 
had enough — but to bring together, within the compass 
of a moderate number of pages, the principal facts on 
which the great majority of critics seem to have agreed 
in connection with the history and monuments of Egypt. 
We have endeavoured to look coldly on the sanguine 
speculations of enthusiastic Egyptologists, and, so far as 
our design allowed, to keep within the most precise 
limits of actual and positive knowledge. How easy it is 
to err in dealing, however slightly, with Egyptian history, 
civilization, or religion, the critic will not fail to be 
aware ; and this circumstance will probably induce him 
to judge with some indulgence a manual which, in so 
small a compass, presumes to deal with such extended 
subjects. At all events, we have not made a single 
statement except on what has seemed to us good autho- 



viii 



PRE FA CE, 



rity; and we venture to believe that in no other volume 
of equally humble pretensions has there been brought 
together so much exact information on the past and 
present of the "Land of the Nile." So that the reader 
who has neither leisure nor inclination to consult the 
weighty volumes of English, French, and German Egypt- 
ologists, may be glad to turn for reference to the follow- 
ing pages ; while to the young student it is hoped they 
will be found useful, as an introduction to a wide, an 
important, and a specially interesting study. 

It remains only to be added, that the Illustrations are 
from authentic sources, and, in the main, are executed, 
not only with fidelity, but with artistic feeling • that we 
have prefixed a copious list of authorities on Egyptian 
subjects i and that a brief account of the Suez Canal is 
furnished in an Appendix. 



" Go, little booke ; God send thee good passage, 
And specially let this be thy prayere, 
Unto them all that thee will read or heare, 
When thou art wrong, after their help to call, 
Thee to correct in any part, or all." 



W. H. D. A. 



/ 




[To enumerate all the works — history, travel, antiquarian research 
— which have been devoted to Egypt and her glorious river, Fiuvius 
fluvionim, would occupy a far larger space than the present writer 
has at his disposal. In the subjoined list, therefore, he professes only 
to enumerate those which have been mainly consulted in the pre- 
paration of the following pages, and he is fully aware that many of 
conspicuous merit are omitted from it. But the young student, 01 
general reader, who may wish to carry his Egyptian studies beyond 
the outlines sketched in our little volume, cannot neglect the autho- 
rities here subjoined without gteat disadvantage.] 

Adams, A. L. — The Naturalist in the Nile Valley (Longmans, 

1870). 

Baker, Sir Sajntiel — The Albert X ; yanza, Great Lakes, and Sources 
of the Nile (London, 1866). Compare Edinburgh Review, and 
Quarterly Review, both for July 1866. 

Bartlett, IV. H.— The Nile Boat, illustrated (London, 1S50). 

Bdzoni, G. B. — Narrative of the Operations and Recent Dis- 
coveries within the Pyramids, &c. , &c, in Egypt and Nubia (Lon- 
don, 1821). 

Birch, Dr. — Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphics, prefixed 
to Sir J. G. Wilkinson's " Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs" 
(London, 1857). 

Bunsen, Baron — Aegyptens-Stelle (Hamburg andGotha, 1845-57). 
Translated by C. J. Cotterell, M.A., under the title of " Egypt's 



X 



A UTHORITIES. 



Place in the World's History." See also " Life and Letters of 
Bunsen," for incidental allusions and observations. 

Burckhardt, y. L. — Travels in Nubia (1819) ; Manners and Cus- 
toms of the Modern Egyptians (London, 1830). 

CaUliaud, M. — Voyage au Meroe, Fleuve Blanc, &c. (Paris, 
1826, 1827). 

Denon, Baron — Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte (Paris, 
1802). 

Hamilton, Sir W. — Aegyptiaca (London, 1810). 
Heeren — Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and 
Trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians (Oxford, 

1838). 

Hopley, Howard- — Under Egyptian Palms. 

Hoskins, G. A. — Travels in Ethiopia above the Second Cataract 
of the Nile, &c. ; with Ninety Illustrations (London, 1835). 

Kinglake, A. W. — Eothen ; or, Footprints of Eastern Travel 
(London, 1844). 

Lane, E. — Modern Egyptians (London, 1842). 

Lepsins — Konigsbuch der Alten Aegypten (quarto, Berlin, 1848); 
and Denkmaler der Aegypten (12 vols, folio, 1849-60). 

Lindsay, Lord — Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land 
(London, 1834). 

Martineau, Harriet — Eastern Life, Past and Present (London, 
1848). 

Melly. G. — Khartoum, and the two Niles (London, 1851). 

Richardson, Dr. — Travels along the Mediterranean and Adjacent 
Parts, during the years 181 6 to 1 818 (London, 1822). 

Romer, Mrs. — Temples and Tombs of Egypt and Nubia. 

Mariette, M. — Serapeum de Memphis, (quarto, Paris, 1856). 

Russell, Dr. (Bishop of Glasgow) — History of Ancient and 
Modern Egypt (Edin. Cab. Lib., Edinburgh, 1852) ; and Nubia 
and Abyssinia (in the same collection, 1840). 

Russell, Dr. W. H. — The Prince and Princess of Wales's Visit to 
Egypt, and up the Nile. 

Sharpe, Samuel — History of Egypt (London, 1846). 

Sherer, Captain — Scenes and Impressions in Egypt and Italy 
(London, 1854). 



A UTHORITIES. 



xi 



Smith, Rev. A. C. — The Nile and its Banks (Longmans). 

Trevor, Canon — Ancient Egypt (Religious Tract Society), 

IVarburton, Eliot — The Crescent and the Cross (1856). 

Wilkinson, Sir J. G. — Topography of Thebes and General View of 
Egypt (London, 1835) ; Manners and Customs of the Ancient 
Egyptians (in two series, London, 1837 and [841) ; Modern Egypt 
and Thebes (1843) ; Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians 

(1854)- 

[Reference should also be made to the works of Brugsch, Cham- 
pollion-Figeac, Poole, and others.] 



CSf oniutts. 



BOOK FIRST, 

CHAPTER I. 

Antiquity of Egypt, and Early Development of its Civilization, . . 14 

Physical Features of the Country remain Unchanged, .. .. 15 

Gradual Introduction of Western Civilization, .. .. .. 15 

Boundaries and Dimensions of Egypt, .. .. .. .. 16 

Boundaries and Dimensions of the Nile Valley, .. .. .. 16 

Ancient Division of Egypt into Nomes, or Districts, . . . . 19 

Some Remarks on the Ancient Worship of Animals, . . . . 22 

Extreme Sacredness of the Bull, or Apis .. .. .. 23 

Annual Feast in Honour of it, . . . . . . . , 24 

Roman Divisions of Egypt, . . . c . . . . . . 25 

General Aspect of the Country — Lower and Middle Egypt, . . 25 

Upper Egypt, and its Pleasant Landscapes, . . . . . . 26 

The Trees of Egypt, . . . . . . . . . . . , 27 

Its Animal Life, . . . . . . . , . . . . 28 

The Birds of Egypt : their Number and Variety, . . . . 29 

Characteristics of the Egyptian Climate, . . . . . . 32 

Present Population of the Kingdom of Egypt, and Statistics, . . 34 

CHAPTER II. 

Want of Authorities for the Early History of Egypt, .. .. 35 

The Five Eras, . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 

The Pharaonic, and its Thirty Dynasties, . . . . . . 36 

Menes, or Men, the Founder of the Monarchy, . ; .. ,. 37 

Note on Egyptian Animal Worship, .. .. .. .. 37 

The Kings of the Pyramids, . . . . . . . . . . 40 

The Founder of Heliopolis, .. .. .. .. 41 

The Labyrinth of Amenemha III. , .. .. .. ,. 42 

Description of the Labyrinth, .. .. .. .. 43 



4 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER II.— Continued. 

The Shepherd Kings, and their Expulsion, .. .. 44 

The " Edward the First" of Egypt, .. . . .. 44 

Capture of Salem by Rameses II., ,. .. .. .. 45 

Ranieses III. and Sheshonk, .. .. .. 47 

The Dodekarchy, or Twelve Kings, . . . . . . . . 48 

The Pharaoh Necho of the Old Testament, .. .. .. 49 

The Story of Amasis and Polycrates, . . , . . . . . 50 

The Persian Invasion, , . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

Herodotus Visits Egypt, .. .. ., .. 51 

The Greek Era, and its Influence, .. ... .. 53 

Alexander the Great Visits the Libyan Desert, . . . . . . 54 

He Founds Alexandria, . . . . . . . . . . 55 

Ptolemy Soter, first Greek King of Egypt, . . . . . . 56 

Good Deeds of Ptolemy Philadelphus, .. .. .. .. 57 

Ptolemy Euergetes, a Victor in War and Peace, . . . . . . 57 

Ptolemy the " Malefactor," Rebellion against, .. .. .. 58 

Cleopatra placed on the Throne by Julius Caesar, . . . . 59 

Mark Antony and Cleopatra, .. .. .. .. .. 60 

Death of Cleopatra, . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 

Chronological Table of the Ptolemys, .. .. .. .. 61 

The Roman Era, . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 

Egypt Conquered by Queen Zenobia, . . . . . . . . 63 

Re-conquered by the Romans, . . . . . . . . . . 64 

Introduction of Christianity, . . . . . . . . . . 64 

Destruction of the Serapeion, and Fall of Paganism, . . . . 65 

The Modern Era, .. .. .. .. .. .. 66 

The Mohammedans Capture Alexandria and Subdue Egypt, . . 66 

Mehemet Ali, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 

Massacre of the Mamelukes, . . . . . . . . . . 69 

Mehemet Ali baffled by England in his Schemes of Conquest, . . 70 

Present Condition of the Country, . . . . . . . . 73 

CHAPTER III. 

The Contest between the Nile and the Desert, . . . . . . 77 

The Nile regarded as the Good, and the Desert as the Evil Principle, 78 

Mystery surrounding its Sources, . . . . . . . . 78 

Researches of Speke and Sir S. Baker, . . . . . . . . 79 

The Two Lakes, .. .. .. .. .. , 80 

Course of the Nile to Khartum, . . . . . . . . 80 

The Blue Nile, or Bahr-el-Azrek, .. .. .. .. 83 

The Valley of the Nile Described, .. .. .. .. 84 

The Cataracts, or Rapids, . . . . . . . . . . 84 

Influence of the Nile on Egyptian Agriculture, .. .. .. 85 

To what the Rise of the Nile is due, .. : .. 86 



CONTENTS. 



5 



CHAPTER III.— Continued. 

An Inundated Country, . . . . . . . . . . 86 

Divinity of the River, . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 

Remarkable Statue of the Nile, . . . . . . . . 88 

Pageants on the Nile, . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 

Influence of the Nile on the Character and Genius of Egyptian Art, 90 

Vitality of Egyptian Imagery, . . . . . . . . . . 91 



BOOK SECOND. 

CHAPTER I. 

Alexandria : Its Ancient Prosperity, . . . . . . . . 92 

Its Public Buildings and Worthies, .. .. .. 93 

Modern Alexandria, .. .. .. .. .. 94 

An Oriental Spectacle, . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 

The Railway Station at Alexandria, . . . . . . . . 99 

Description of the Ancient City, .. .. .. .. 100 

Scene of the Contests between Arians and Athanasians, . . . . 101 

Conflict between the Roman Empire and the Christian Church, . . 102 

Interesting Associations, . . . . . . . . . . 103 

Decay and Revival of Alexandria, . . . . . . . . 104 

The so-called Pompey's Pillar, . . . . , . . . . . 105 

The Temple of Caesar, .. .. ,. .. .. 107 

The Obelisks known as " Cleopatra's Needles," .. .. .. 108 

CHAPTER II. 

Railway Journey to Cairo, .. .. .. .. .. no 

View of the City Described, .. .. .. .. .. in 

Its Oriental Character, .. .. .. .. . .. 112 

Historical Summary, .. .. .. .. .. 113 

Its Citadel, and Prospect from the Ramparts, . . .. . . 113 

The Mosques of Cairo, .. .. .. .. .. .. 118 

Described by Lady Duff Gordon, .. .. .. 118 

In the Streets of Cairo, .. .. .. .. 118 

The Dancing Dervishes, .. .. .. .. .. 120 

The Donkeys and Donkey-drivers of Cairo, .. .. .. 123 

An Expedition to the Pyramids, .. .. .. .. 127 

Their Impressive Associations, .. .. ., .. .. 127 

Who Built them, and for what Purpose ?. . .. .. .. 129 

They are probably Sepulchral Monuments of the Kings, . . . . 129 

Egyptian Life a constant Preparation for Death, .. .. .. 130 

Erection of a Pyramid, .. .. .. .. .. .. 131 

The Great Pyramid (of " Cheops," or Shufu), . . . . . . 132 

Exploration of its Interior, .. .. .. .. .. 133 



6 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER U.— Continued. 

The King's Chamber, .. .. .. ,, I34 

The Pyramid of Chephren, or Sha-fre, .. .. .. .. I3 - 

Belzoni's Exploration of it Described, .. .. .. .. I3 6 

Discoveries which he made there, .. .. .. ,. x^g 

The Third Pyramid, . . . . . . . . . . . . X ^ Q 

Minor Pyramids, . . . . . . . . . . . , 

Legends of the Pyramids, .. .. .. .. .. 14I 

Their Mechanical Excellence, .. .. .. - .. .. 142 

The Sphinx, .. .. .. .. .. .. I43 

Described by Kinglake, the Author of " Eothen," .. .. 144 

Its Dimensions and Antiquity, .. .. .. .. .. 146 

M. Marietta's Researches, and their Results, .. .. .. 147 

A Visit to Memphis, .. .. .. .. .. .. I4 8 

Its Ancient History, .. .. .. .. . . ^8 

Its scanty Remains, .. .. .. 

The Apeum, or Sanctuary, .. .. .. .. .. I5Q 

The Serapeion, or Temple of Osiris-Apis, .. .. .. 153 

Apis Worshipped as a Symbol of Osiris, .. .. .. .. 154 

Other Memorials of Ancient Memphis, .. .. .. .. 155 

Excursion to Heliopolis, .. .. .. .. .. 156 

Remarkable Associations of the City, .. .. .. .. 157 

Pyramids and Obelisks, .. .. .. .. .. 159 

CHAPTER III. 

A Voyage up the Nile, .. .. .. .. .. .. 163 

Sights and Sounds on either Bank, .. .. .. .. 164 

" The Mountain of the Birds," .. .. .. .. .. 167 

Beni-hassan and its Tombs, . . . . . . . . . . 167 

A Tomb of special Interest, . . . . . . . . . . 168 

Its Sculptures, and their Meaning, .. .. .. .. jyi 

Other Tombs and other Sculptures, .. ,. .. .. 172 

Life in Old Egypt Depicted, .. .. .. .. .. 174 

From Girgeh to Keneh. . . . « . . . . . . 176 

The Temple at Dendera, .. .. .. .. .. iyg 

Its Great Portico, .. .. .. .. .. .. 180 

The Sanctuary of Athor, .. .. .. .. .. 183 

The Typhoneion, .. .. .. .. .. .. 184 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Ancient City of Thebes, .. .. .. .. .. 185 

Reflections suggested by its R uins, .. .. .. .. 186 

Its Admirable Commercial Situation, .. .. .. .. 187 

Its History, .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 188 

The Theban Kings, .. .. .. .. .. 189 

(295} 



CONTENTS. 



7 



CHAPTER IV.— Continued. 

Rameses III., and his Conquests, .. .. ., .. 190 

Invasion of Cambyses, .. .. .. .. .. .. 191 

Reign of the Ptolemys, . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 

The Villages which mark the Site of Ancient Thebes . . . . 193 

The Rameseion, . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 

The Statue of Rameses III., .. .. .. .. .. 194 

The Splendours of the Great Hall, . . . . ... . . 197 

Sculptures in Honour of Rameses, . . . . . . . . 198 

Pictures of Strife and Battle, . . . . . . . . . . 199 

The Amunopheion, . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 

The Two Colossi : Tama and Chama, . . . . . . . . 200 

The Palace-Temple of Rameses, or Southern Rameseion, . . . . 205 

The Thothmeseion at Medinet-Aboo, . . . . . . . . 206 

An Immense Necropolis, . . . . . . . . . . 209 

Remarks on the Egyptian Ideas of Death, .. .. .. 210 

The Tombs and their Sculptures, .. .. .. .. 211 

The Hall of Beauty, .. .. .. .. .. 212 

The Sarcophagus of Osirei, .. .. .. 213 

The Harpers' Tomb, .. .. .. .. .. 214 

Tombs of two Pharaohs, .. .. .. .. .. 215 

The French Army at Karnak, .. .. .. .. .. 216 

The Palace of the Kings, .. .. „ .. .. 218 

The Hall of Columns, .. .. .. .. .. 219 

A Biblical Illustration, .. .. .. .. .. .. 221 

The Crio-Sphinxes, . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 

At Luxor, .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 225 

An Animated Sculpture, . . . . . . . . . . 226 

The Thebaid as it was, and as it is, . . . . . . . . 229 



BOOK THIRD. 

CHAPTER I. 

Erment, the Hermonthis of the Greeks, .. .. . . .. 231 

The Ancient Crocodilopolis, . . . . . . . . . . 232 

The Spur-winged Plover, . . . . . . . . . . 232 

Temple of Kneph at Esneh, .. .. .. .. .. 233 

The Ancient Latopolis, . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 

Performances of the Almehs, or Dancing-Girls, . . . . . . 235 

An Egyptian Marriage Ceremony, . . . . . . . . 236 

The Rock-Tombs at 'Eilythia, . . . . . . . . . . 238 

Pictures of the Ancient Life, . . . . . . . . . . 239 

The Judgment of Osiris, . . . . . . . . . . 240 

Edfoo, or Apollinopolis Magna , . . .. .. .. 240 

Its two Temples, .. .. .. .. .. 241 

(295; 2 



8 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I.— Continued. 

Interior of the Larger Temple, .. .. .. ,, .. 242 

The Pass of Hadjur Silsileh, .. .. .. .. 243 

History in Stone : the Sculptured Rocks, .. .. .. 244 

The Village of Koum Ombos, .. .. .. .. 246 

The Temple of Arveris, . . . . . . . , . . 246 

The Temple of Isis, .. .. .. .. .. .. 248 

CHAPTER II. 

Approach to Assouan ;Syene., .. .. .. .. .. 249 

The Gate at the Frontier, . . 4 . . . . . . . 250 

The Quarries of Syene, .. .. .. .. .. 251 

The Obelisk and the Columns, .. .. .. .. 252 

Visit to the Island of Elephantine, .. .. .. .. 253 

Its Memorials of Interest, .. .. .. .. .. 254 

The Holy Island of Philae, . . . . . . . . . . 254 

Opinions of Travellers on the Scenery of Philae, .. .. .. 256 

Sacredness of the Island, .. .. .. .. 257 

Its Numerous Ruins, . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 

Its Temple of Osiris. .. .. .. .. .. 259 

The so-called Resurrection Chamber, . . . . . . . . 263 

The small Temple of " Pharaoh's Bed," .. .. .. 265 

Remarks on the Sacred Character and Attributes of Osiris. . . 265 

As the Supreme Judge, . . . . . . . . . . 2-66 

As the Centre of Life, .. .. .. .. .. .. 267 

Typhon, the Rival God, . . . . . . . . . . 268 

Isis, the Wife of Osiris, . . . . . . . . . . 268 

Interest which Philae necessarily possesses for Modern Students. . . 269 

CHAPTER III. 

Birbe, a small River-port, . . . . . . . . . . 270 

Ascent of the First Cataract. .. .. .. .. .. 271 

Its Picturesque Incidents, .. .. .. .. .. 272 

Crossing the Egyptian Frontier-line, .. .. .. .. 274 



BOOK FOURTH. 

CHAPTER I. 

Ancient Name of Nubia, .. .. .. 275 

Historical Sketch of Nubia. . . . . . . . . . . 276 

Costume of the Nubians, .. .. .. .. 277 

Their Character, Manners and Customs, and Products, . . . . 278 

Principal Towns and Rivers, .. .. .. .. 278 

Conquest of Nubia by Ismael Pasha. .. .. .. .. 279 



CONTENTS, 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Kalabsche 'the ancient Talmis', .. .. .. .. 2S1 

Its Temple to Mandulis, .. ,. .. .. .. 281 

The Rock-Temple at Beyt-el-Wellee, . . . . . . . . 282 

Temple at Dendour, . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 

Ruins at Ghirsche Housseyn, .. .. .. .. .. 283 

Great Temple in honour of Ptah, . . . . . . . . 285 

Temple built by Eugamenes at Dakkeh, . . . . . . 287 

What were the Propyla ? . . . . . . . . 288 

Probably used both as "Watch-Towers and Observatories, . . . . 289 

The " Valley of the Lions," .. .. .. .. .. 290 

Derr, the Nubian Capital, .. .. .. .. .. 291 

The Castle of Ibreem, . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 

The Wonder of the Nile Valley, . . . . . . . . 293 

Abou-Simbel, or Ipsambul, .. .. .. .. .. 293 

The Temple of Osiris, . . . . . . . , . . . . 294 

A Colossal Doorway, . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 

The Gigantic Ramessid Figures, .. .. ., 295 

The Great Hall, and minor Chambers, .. .. .. .. 297 

Temple to Isis, . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 

Description of the Sculptured Walls, . . . . . . . . 299 

Boundary of Roman Conquest, . . . . . . . . . . 300 

CHAPTER III. 

Rock-Temple at Gebel-Adha, . . . . . . . . . . 301 

The Wady Haifa, . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 

Above the Second Cataract, .. .. .. .. .. 302 

Abousir, or Abooseer, .. .. .. .. .. 302 

Temple of Soleb, . . . . . . . . . , . . 303 

Ancient Kingdom of Meroe, .. .. .. .. .. 304 

The City of Meroe, .. .. .. .. .. .. 305 

Groups of Pyramids, . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 

At Woad Naja, .. .. .. .. .. .. 306 

Antiquities at El-Mesaourat, .. .. .. .. .. 308 

An Asylum for the " Sacred Ship," .. .. .. ., 309 

Homer's Allusion to the Ethiopians, .. .. .. .. 311 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Libyan Oases, .. ,. .. ., ., .. 312 

Ancient Authorities, .. .. .. .. .. .. 313 

The Great Oasis, .. .. .. .. .. .. 315 

The Little Oasis, .. .. .. .. .. .. 316 

The Northern Oasis, .. .. .. .. ,. .. 317 

The " Oracle of Ammon," .. .. .. .. 318 



10 



CONTENTS. 



APPENDIX, 

The Suez Canal. 

Its Construction. 

Statistics, 

Its Dimensions, 

Along the Canal, 
On the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, 
The Ramessids, 
Index, 

List of Illustrations, 




MAP OF THE NILE VALLEY. 



EGYPT PAST AND PRESENT. 



Book ^BvitBi 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY : — THE BOUNDARIES, SOIL, DIVISIONS, 
AND CHIEF TOWNS OF EGYPT. 

A land where all things always seem the same. 

Tennyson. 



F all the countries of the old Roman Empire, 
Egypt is perhaps the most attractive both for 
the student and the traveller. Time has 
clothed it with a strange and solemn charm ; 
has spread over it, so to speak, an atmosphere of mys- 
terious romance!; and the mind cannot but be impressed 
with awe and wonder which contemplates its sphinxes 
and its pyramids, its colossal statues and huge obelisks, 
its monuments of a remote antiquity to which the an- 
tiquity of Greece and Rome is but a thing of yesterday. 
Long before Cecrops founded Athens — long, long before 
an Etruscan colony sowed at Alba Longa the first seeds 



*4 



ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT. 



of imperial Rome — long even before Abraham walked 
with angels in the plains of Mamre — Egypt was studded 
with great cities, and had developed a complete system 
of civilization. Long before " the Samian sage" taught 
the Athenian youth, or " the blind old bard of Scio's 
rocky isle" narrated in immortal verse the heroic deeds 
of Achilles and the devotion of Andromache, Egypt was 
the home of a consistent religious creed, of a recondite 
philosophy, of a complete literature. Vou may trace 
back its annals for some four thousand years before the 
birth of Christ, and many of its monuments are undoubt- 
edly the most ancient memorials of human skill and 
labour existing in the world. \Ne are accustomed to 
think and speak of the Hebrew patriarchs as the " world's 
gray forefathers;" but, in truth, Egypt was a powerful 
and opulent empire even in the days of Joseph, and 
while Jacob and his sons still tended sheep in the grassy 
solitudes of the Asiatic plains. It was in the Egyptian 
schools Moses was trained to become the lawgiver of 
the Jewish people. Its pyramids were rising on the 
bank of the Nile at an epoch coeval with that of Abra- 
ham and Isaac. We see, then, that Egypt was the 
cradle of the world's civilization. Thence Greece derived 
her art, her science, her literature ; and, improving them 
in the light and fulness of her own exquisite imagination, 
handed them down to imperial Rome, whose mission it 
was to diffuse them over Western Europe. 
^ And such as Egypt was in the dawn of human history, 
such is it now. In many important respects, no land 
on the face of the globe has undergone so little change. 
True it is that its palaces are masses of ruin, half buried 



ITS MONOTONOUS CHARACTER. 



in sand ; that of Memphis, and Thebes, and Karnak 
only the shadow of their former glory survives ; that in 
the seat of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemys sits the de- 
scendant of an alien race. But then consider that its pyra- 
mids survive almost uninjured ; that its language remains ; 
that the Nile still rises and swells with annual regularity; 
that the animal life teeming on its banks is the animal life 
worshipped, loved, or dreaded three thousand years ago by 
the subjects of Rameses ; that the k/iamsiu still scorches 
the meadow-land with hot fierce breath ; that beyond the 
narrow belt of verdure which the bright river traverses 
still spreads the boundless yellow expanse of the dreary 
desert; that the husbandman still finds his sustenance 
and support in the palm, and cultivates his little garden 
of leeks and other vegetables ; that the creaking water- 
wheel is plied now as it was plied in the days of Nec- 
tanebus ; — consider these things, and own that Monotony 
is written everywhere on the face of the land. 

But a change is coming. ] The grasp of Western civil- 
ization is on the throat of this weird antiquity, and the 
\ Egypt of the past will soon be as a dream that once has 
been. •' As the waters of the Mediterranean pour through 
the Canal of Suez, to mingle with those of the Red Sea, 
so will the powerful influences of the West blend with the 
thoughts and passions, the ways and customs of the East, 
until the Valley of the Nile will preserve nothing of the 
Past but its ruins. 

Egypt occupies the north-eastern corner of the African 
continent, where it is linked to that of Asia by the Isth- 
mus of Suez, and separated from that of Europe by the 



1 6 PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE LAND, 



narrow waters of the Mediterranean. It stretches inland 
from that old historic sea, which for ages has been one of 
the principal channels of the world's commerce, to the 
first cataract of the Nile, that of Assouan, the ancient 
Syene; or from the parallel of latitude 31 37', to that of 
24 3' N. Its eastern boundary is formed by the Red Sea : 
on the west it is bordered by the ever-shifting sands of the 
Libyan Desert. Following the track of the Nile, we may 
compute its length at about 530 miles ; its breadth may 
be measured by that of the river valley, for the cultivated 
territory does not extend beyond the limits marked by 
the rivers yearly inundations. Three-fourths of the 
" Egypt " shown upon our maps are a rocky, sterile 
waste, and except the narrow valley already spoken of, 
the only cultivated and inhabitable portion is found in 
Lower Egypt, or the Delta, an area of between 4000 and 
5000 square miles. 

The average breadth of the Nile valley, which is simply 
a strip of alluvial deposit annually fertilized by the 
riverine sediment, is, up to the 30th parallel, about 
seven miles ; while that of the cultivable land does not 
exceed five miles and a half. Between Cairo in Lower, 
and Edfou in Upper Egypt, the maximum breadth may 
be taken at eleven miles, the minimum at two. Further 
south, between Edfou and Assouan, so great is the con- 
traction of the valley — it may more justly be called a 
ravine — that scarcely any soil exists on either bank ; but 
from the waters of the Nile the rocks spring up like cliffs 
from the sea, bold, abrupt, and precipitous. To this 
circumstance is largely owing the pleasure derived by the 
traveller from a voyage up the Nile. The landscape is 



THE NOMES OF OLD EGYPT. 



19 



everywhere brought within his ken. It is set like a pic- 
ture in a framework of hills and mountains, and all its 
details are at once comprehended by the eye. 

Etymologists are unable to inform us why the Greeks 
called this remarkable region — Egypt, y Alymrros. But 
the name is as old as the days of Homer, who, indeed, 
bestows it also on the river Nile.* In the language of 
its aboriginal inhabitants it was expressively termed 
C/iemi, or the " Black Earth," in allusion to the colour 
of its rich soil; the Hebrews named it Mizraim; the 
Arabians Mesr ; and the Copts El-Kebit, or the " Inun- 
dated Land." 

It was anciently divided into nomes (vo/xot) or districts, 
each of which had its civil governor (in Greek, the 
nomarch, or v6\xapypi), its distinct priesthood, its temple, 
its greater and lesser towns, its magistrates, ceremonies, 
customs, and separate political and civil economy. The 
number of these nomes is uncertain ; but it w r as never 
less than forty-five, and sometimes seems to have risen 
to fifty-five. The following were, at all events, the most 
important : — 

I. — IN THE DELTA. 

1. The Menelaite : chief town, Canobus, where existed a famous 
temple and oracle of Serapis. 

2. The Andropolite : chief town, Andropolis. 

3. The Sebennytic : chief town, Pachnamunis, where Latona was 
worshipped. 

4. The Chemviite : chief town, Buto. 

5. The Omiphite : chief town, Onuphis. 

6. The Phthemphtithite : chief town, Tava. 

* Homer, " Odyssey," book iv., line 477. 



20 



THE NOMES OF OLD EGYPT 



7. The Saite : chief to n, Sais, which possessed a peculiar sanctity 
as the burial-place and sanctuary of Osiris. 

8. The Busirite : chief town, Busiris. Here Isis was worshipped, 
and at one time "the red-coloured men from over the sea" — that is, 
Syrian and Arabian wanderers — were offered up as sacrifices on her 
altar. 

9. The Thmuite : chief town, Thmuis. 

10. The Mendesian ; chief town, Mendes, where the goat Mendes 
(the origin of the Greek god Pan) had a temple. 

11. The Taniie : chief town, Tanis. Here, it is said, Moses was 
born and educated. 

12. The Bubastite : chief town, Bubastis, containing, according 
to Herodotus, a magnificent temple to Artemis. 

13. The Athribite: chief town, Athribis, where the shrew-mouse 
and the crocodile were elevated into objects of reverence. 

14. The Heliopolite : chief town, Heliopolis (On), the principal 
seat of the worship of the sun. 

15. The Herobpolite : chief town, Heroopolis, where the great 
god of the people was Typhon, the personified principle of Evil. 

There were also the Nitriote, the Letopolite, the Prosopite, the 
Leontopolite, the Mentelite, the Pharbaethite, and the Sethraite. 

II. IN THE HEPTANOMIS. 

1. The Memphite : chief town Memphis, which was at one time 
the capital of Egypt, and the royal seat of the Pharaohs (after Psam- 
metichus, B.C. 616). It rose into importance when Thebes decayed, 
and, in its turn, declined after the rise of Alexandria. 

2. The Aphroditopolite : chief town, Aphroditopolis, the sanctuary 
of Athor or Aphrodite, whose worship was adopted by the Greeks. 

3. The Arsinoite (or the Faioum) : chief town, Crocodilopolis ; so 
named from the worship paid to the crocodile. It was afterwards 
called Arsinoe. 

4. The Heracleote : chief town, Heracleopolis Magna, with a 
temple to the ichneumon. 

5. The Hermopolite (between Upper and Middle Egypt) : chief 
town, Hermopolis, situated "a little to the north of the castle and 



THE NOMES OF OLD EGYPT. 



21 



toll-house where the portage or customs-duty was levied on all craft 
ascending the river." 

6. The Cynopolite : chief town, Cynopolis. Here the dog-headed 
god Anubis was reverenced. 

7. The Greater and Lesser Oases were reckoned as one nome among 
the Heptanomites. 

III. — IN UPPER EGYPT. 

1. The Lycopolite : chief town, Lycopolis. Here the wolf was 
worshipped. 

2. The Antaeopolite : chief town, Antaeopolis. The god of this 
nome or canton would seem to have been Typhon. 

3. The Aphroditopolite. In cases where a northern and a southern 
canton possessed similar objects of worship, the former was probably 
a colony or an offset of the latter. The Thebaid was the birth-place 
of Egyptian civilization, whence, in the course -of years, it gradually 
moved northward.* 

4. The Panopolite (afterwards called the Chemmite) : chief town, 
Panopolis or Chemmis. Here hero-worship was dedicated to an 
apotheosized man, whom the Greeks compared to their Perseus. The 
population was principally composed of stone-masons and linen- 
weavers. 

5. The Thinite: chief town, This; afterwards called Abydus. 
There is reason to believe that this nome was the most ancient as 
well as the principal nome of the kingdom of Menes of This. Osiris 
was its principal divinity. 

6. The Tentyrite : chief town, Tentyra. Here Athor, Isis, and 
Typhon were worshipped. 

7. The Coptite : chief town, Coptos. Its inhabitants were chiefly 
engaged in the caravan trade between Berenice and the interior of 
Arabia and Libya. 

8. The Hermonthite: chief town, Hermonthis. Here Osiris and 
his son Orus were worshipped. 

* W. B. Donne, art. " Aegyptus," in Dr. Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and 
Roman Geography," i., pp. 36-48. To this elaborately-compiled paper we have 
been greatly indebted. 



22 



EG YPTIAN ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 



9. The Apollonite : chief town, Apollinopolis Magna. Its in- 
habitants reverenced the sun, and, like those of the Tentyrite, 
hunted the crocodile. Hence they were at constant variance with 
the people of — 

10. The Ombite : chief town, Ombos, who worshipped the great 
saurian of the Nile. 

The frequent references made in the foregoing enu- 
meration to animal - worship will probably perplex our 
younger readers. They will wonder that so polished and 
learned a people as the Egyptians should dedicate altars 
and temples, and offer homage, to the shrew-mouse or 
the crocodile, the dog or the wolf. Unquestionably, this 
is one of the most perplexing subjects with which the his- 
torian of Egypt has to deal. Not its least difficulty is, 
that the same animals were not worshipped by the whole 
nation : that while some were the objects of general, 
many w r ere the objects only of local adoration. Thus, 
throughout the entire Valley of the Nile, the sacred beetle 
(scarabaeus sacer), the ibis, the ox, the hawk, the dog, 
the cat, and the fishes lefiidotus and oxyrrynchus, were 
worshipped \ w T hile the wolf was regarded with divine 
honours only at Lycopolis, the shrew-mouse at Athribis, 
the eagle at Thebes, the lion at Leontopolis, the goat at 
Mendes, and the sheep in the Saitic and Thebaid nomes. 
The god reverenced in one canton was hunted in an- 
other ; the thing regarded as clean in Upper, was stig- 
matized as Mclean in Middle Egypt, It seems impos- 
sible, therefore, with our present light, to determine upon 
what principles animal-worship was based. We know that 
it was in all ages " the opprobrium of Egypt that it was 
condemned by the Hebrew prophets ; that it was ridi- 
culed by the Greeks, who, nevertheless, could erect their 



ITS ORIGINAL 



SIGNIFICANCE. 



23 



temples to lustful gods and shameless goddesses. And, 
certainly, at the first glance, it appears a fair target for 
the shafts of the satirist J Fancy a wise and civilized 
people bowing down before a cat or a crocodile ! \Btft 
would a wise and civilized people do so, unless the cat 
or the crocodile was something more — that is, unless 
it was the symbol of some great truth, the typical repre- 
sentation of some moral or religious axiom 1 Mr. Donne 
suggests as probable, that among a contemplative and 
serious race, as the Egyptians were, animal-worship arose 
out of the detection of certain analogies between instinct 
and reason • and that, to the initiated, the reverence paid 
to beasts was a recognition of the Creator in every type 
of his work. But the suggestion will not meet the diffi- 
culty to which we have already alluded. 

However this may be, it is evident that from the 
earliest times the Egyptians adopted certain animals as 
representatives of their gods ; in other words, that they 
worshipped their symbolical deities under symbolical 
animal forms. The meaning of the symbols we do not 
know — -we cannot even guess ; in all probability it was 
lost by the Egyptians themselves at a comparatively early 
period of their history ; and hence a religion which, in its 
original development, was mystical, but pure and ele- 
vated, degenerated into a mean and debased superstition. 

The animal most sacred in the later age of Egypt was 
the bull, or Apis ; and his worship eventually assumed a 
bacchanalian character, attended by the wildest and most 
extravagant revels. On the feast day of the god. says 
Herodotus,* all the Egyptians arrayed themselves as 

* Herodotus, iii. 27. 
[295) . o 



24 



THE EGYPTIAN RITUAL. 



soon as the beast left his gilded asylum, and gave way 
to feasting and jollity. Hilarious processions formed an 
important feature of the Egyptian ritual ; as might have 
been expected in a country where the cloudless sky and 
the elastic air predispose men to mirth and indolence. 
Drumann,"a German writer, remarks that they were like 
orgies ; that even the women appeared in them ; that they 
were followed by indecent songs and dances, by clamor* 




SACRED DANCE. 



ous music and drunken feasts, and by mimes and mum- 
meries (like the Roman Saturnalia), in which the actors 
painted their faces, and ridiculed or struck the bystanders. 
At the great annual festival in honour of the goddess 
Pasht, held at Bubastis, these processions were conducted 
on a colossal scale, and more grape wine was consumed 
while it lasted than throughout the rest of the year. 

Before quitting the subject we may add, that besides 
the bull Apis, the Egyptians honoured the sacred ox of 
Heliopolis — Mnevis, or Mne — from which, and not from 
Apis, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson,* the Israelites 

* Sir G Wilkinson, " Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt," ii. 97. 



ROMAN AND ARAB DIVISIONS. 25 

borrowed their notion of the golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 1-7). 
The offerings, dancing, and rejoicings practised in its 
honour were doubtlessly imitated from the feasts of 
Mnevis, which they had witnessed during their sojourn 
in Egypt. «. 

One beneficial effect of animal-worship is worth no- 
ticing ; the humane feeling towards the brute creation 
which it caused to prevail. In no country were animals 
so tenderly treated as in the Land of the Nile. 

Returning to our description of the divisions of Egypt, 
we find them reduced by the Romans, after their con- 
quest of the land, to three : Augusta Prima^ Augusta 
Seamda, and AZgyfttiaca. A similar arrangement was 
adopted by the Arabs, and still exists, under the follow- 
ing designations : — 

REGIONS. CHIEF TOWNS. 

Musr-el-Bahri, or the Delta (Lower ) Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Abou- 

Egypt) > kir. 

El- Bastaiii, or the Faioum (Middle ) Cairo, Suez, Ismaila, Medinet-el-Fai- 

Egypt; ' oum, Beni-souef, Minyeh, Manfalut. 

i Siout, Girgeh, El-Karnak, El -Luxor, 
Es Said ^pper Egypt) j El-Assouan. 

These three regions, which are marked by distinct 
geographical features, are subdivided into thirteen pro- 
vinced. 

Let us now glance at the general aspect of the country.* 
Lower and Middle Egypt are deficient in wood ; in those 
groves of patrician trees or fresh young plantations which 



* Compare the works of Kinglake, Harriet Martineau, Lord Lindsay, Eartlett, 
Melly, Lady Duff Gordon, Eiiot Warburton, and Rev. A. C. Smith. 



26 



PICTURES FROM EGYPT. 



make up the beauty and richness of an English land- 
scape. Still the country is not utterly bare : its scenes 
are adorned with the tamarisk and the palm, and on the 
border land of the Desert, bloom bright sweet gardens of 
jessamine and orange. Wherever the soil is fairly culti- 
vated, and properly watered, it amply repays the toil of 
the husbandman, yielding luxuriant crops of tobacco, 
cotton, the sugar-cane, and indigo. Among the shallows 
of Lake Menzaleh lingers the once-prized papyrus. In 
the beautiful valley of Faioum myriads of roses burden 
the air with fragrance ; and every peasant's tiny nook of 
ground affords a supply of leeks, garlic, melons, and 
cucumbers. 

Nature, however, is much more genial in Upper 
Egypt, and bestows a greater variety and a richer colour- 
ing on the picture. A recent traveller* declares it im- 
possible to paint a pleasanter ideal of a summer-land 
than the Egypt above Thebes. The purple desert moun- 
tains press it more closely in, as if to infold a loved and 
lovely thing in their sheltering embrace. Their forms 
are wilder and more fantastic, and they revel in ruddier 
hues than below. Even to the Desert's edge, in these 
summer regions, all is growth. You wander through 
fields of millet and maize, and between bright flanking 
patches of yellow-blossoming cotton. You rove amid 
thickets of ricin, and meadows of poppy in bloom. Your 
heart is gladdened by clustering palm-groves, which 
whisper of peace and plenty, where every bright leaflet 
is tipped with an autumn gold, and mellowed by the 
tropic sun : and. from the midst of that lustrous gloom, 

* Howard Hopley, "Under Egyptian Palms," pp. 221. 222. 



SOIL AXD VEGETATIOX OF EGYPT. 



27 



your eye may range over acres of sunny corn-fields, 
whose rich wealth of produce waves contiguous to 
eternal barrenness. And, mirroring the cloudless heav- 
ens, hither and thither, to fertilize and bless, intertwine 

'"'Transparent streams, whose waters go 
Through the palm-wood, serene and silent in their flow." 

The soil of Egypt is remarkable for its fertility, and is 
fertile because it consists of nothing more or less than 
the deposits of its river- waters. These have been graphi- 
cally described by St. Hilaire. 

Nile mud is a sort of brown earth, he says, emphati- 
cally called terre cFEgypte; of the consistence of rather 
stiff clay, but with an extremely fine grain. It is very 
soft and unctuous to the touch, dissolves readily in 
water, and possesses scarcely any odour. When dried it 
becomes very hard, as may be seen in the deep cracks 
which furrow the ground some time after the waters have 
retired. 

In this peculiar alluvial soil vegetation thrives with 
equal strength and rapidity. 

We have spoken of the scarcity of timber. But the 
trees in Egypt are not only few in number, but of few 
species. First and foremost must be ranked the date- 
palm, which is for the Egyptian what the bread-fruit tree 
is for the Polynesian, or rice for the Hindu. It supplies 
him with food, and clothing, and house, and furniture ; 
it is his all-in-all, his stay, his wealth, his very life. 
Scarcely inferior in importance is its congener, the doum 
or dom palm. The acacia, or sont tree of the Arabs, is 
also common ; it furnishes the shittim-yrood of the Bible ; 



28 



ANIMAL LIFE. 




DATE PALMS. 



is the Mimosa Nilo- 
tica of botanists, and 
extensively adopted 
forship-buildingand 
for similar purposes. 
Add to these the 
sycamore and the 
tamarisk, and our 
enumeration of the 
principal trees of 
Egypt is complete.* 
Its animal life is 
far more varied and 
abundant. There 
are fine breeds of 
the horse, the ass, 
and the camel ; the 
last - named being 
the favourite beast of 
burden. The giraffe 
has been driven into 
the wilder districts 
by the unresting ad- 
vance of civiliza- 
tion ; the hippopot- 
amus is only found 
in the far reaches of 
the upper Nile ; but 
the hyena, the wild 

* Rev. A.C. Smith, "The 
Nile and its Banks," i. 278. 



ANIMAL LIFE, 



29 




THE SACRED IBIS. 



dog, and the jackal, still prowl at night through the 
streets of the large towns ; the ichneumon, the stork, 
the heron, the purple goose, and the sacred ibis are 
almost as common now as in the " olden time," though 
the unreasoning passion of English travellers for making 
large "bags of game," threatens to extirpate them from 
the land. 

Egypt, as Mr. Hopley remarks, is wonderfully popu- 
lous with the feathered tribes ; their division and sub- 
division are infinite, From the smaller birdlings that 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 




THE EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 



dwell m the mimosa, whose plumage, gorgeous with all 
rainbow hues, absolutely bewilders you with its beauty, 
up through the ranks of wild and water fowl, to those 
big vultures and august eagles which perch solemnly on 
desert peak or crag, or skim lazily aloft in mid-air, there 
are endless gradations. 

Their tameness appears to be extraordinary. You 
may almost walk into a flock of pigeons on a stubble- 
field, which, when it rises around you, is so dense as to 
cast a thick shadow over acres of land. Water-wagtails 
and fly-catchers on your deck will fearlessly trot up, and 



THE CROCODILE BIRD. 31 




ROSY FLAMINGOES. 



pick a fly off your boot. A crow will parade its carrion 
under your very nose.* 

A curious feathered denizen of the Nile Valley is the 
crocodile bird (the lyochilus of Herodotus),! which acts 
as a kind of parasite to that hideous reptile, and warns 
it of the approach of any intruder. Worthy of note, too, 
is " Pharaoh's hen," or the Egyptian vulture {Neophron 
percnopterus), which, with trailing wings and drooping tail, 
sits brooding, like an evil genius, over the ruined raonu- 



* This is the Charadrius sJ>iuos/(s, or spur-winged plover, 
t Hopley, " Under Egyptian Palms," p. 206. ± 



3 2 



EGYPT AND ITS CLIMATE. 



ments of bygone splendour. And every grove abounds 
with Senegal doves and blue pigeons, jaunty hoopoes, 
bright green bee-eaters, Sardinian warblers, great spotted 
cuckoos : while the corn-fields are peopled with quails, the 
river-banks with martins, and the Desert borders with noisy 
chats. Rarer, but still not uncommon, are the rosy flamingo, 
the common heron, the little egret, the pelican, the curlew, 
the spoonbill, the snipe, the shoveller, and the cormorant. 

Hot and dry is the climate of Egypt • a climate scarcely 
favourable to the highest manifestations of man's intel- 
lectual and physical energy, yet, from its elasticity, pro- 
moting a singular feeling of gaiety and freshness. Its 
extreme dryness eminently conduces to the preservation 
of natural substances from decay ; and in the rock-tombs 
and temples, the traveller looks astonished upon human 
bodies which, buried two or three thousand years ago, 
have defied corruption. The clearness of the atmosphere 
lends a curious distinctness — a remarkable sharpness — 
to every object in the landscape, so that the outline of 
architrave and column seems traced against the azure 
of the sky as with a pencil. The effects of colour pro- 
duced by the after-glow of sunset would have enraptured 
a Titian or a Tintoretto. 

The reader, however, must remember that a great 
climatic difference exists between the broad deltoid plain 
of Lower, and the narrow romantic valley of Upper 
Egypt. The former in its leading features resembles the 
African littoral, Barbary and Marocco ; the latter, both 
in climate, fauna, and flora, is sub-tropical. In fact, rain 
rarely falls in the Thebaid, and the solar heat is almost 
intolerable to the European, 



EFFECTS OF THE KHAMSIN. 





CARAVAN ASSAILED BY THE KHAMSIN. 



The curse of Egypt is the khamsin. That fierce 
southern wind which, in April and May, blows as its 
name indicates, for fifty days ; hot as the blast of a 
furnace, shrivelling the skin, parching the lips, blinding 
the eyes with minute particles of sand, and depressing 
the spirit as with the omen of some unutterable evil* 

The present Population of Egypt is estimated at 

* Rear-Admiral Smyth, <c The Mediterranean." 



34 A PAGE OF STATISTICS. 

5,000,000, including 150,000 Copts, 90,000 Bedouin 
Arabs, 8000 Jews, 3000 Armenians, and 150.000 domi- 
ciled Europeans. It has somewhat decreased since the 
days of antiquity, if we may accept the statement of 
Germanicus, as recorded by Tacitus, that in the reign 
of Rameses it contained 700.000 men of the military 
age. At this rate the entire population would be about 
3,500,000; allow 500, oco for error: add one-third foi 
slaves and strangers : and the total will amount to nearly 
5.500,000. 

Two centuries ago the population of modern Egypt 
was estimated at 4,000,000 : and Sir Gardner Wilkin- 
son, in 1 8 54. placed it as low as 1.500,000. There is 
good reason to believe that he was altogether mistaken 
in his calculations. 

The yearly Income may be computed at ^7 ,47 8,800. 
The Army, in January 1869, consisted of 24.000 men ; 
the Navy, of seven ships of the line, six frigates, nine 
corvettes, seven brigs, and a number of gunboats and 
transports. 

The Money, Weights, and Measures of Egypt, and their 
British equivalents are : — * 

Money. 

The Sequin = Average rate of exchange, 5s. 4fi. 

The Piastre, of forty paras. . . = „ ,, „- 2kl. 

Weights and Measures. 

The Killow - 0.9120 imperial bushel. 

The Almud = 1.151 imperial gallon. 

The Oke ^of 400 drams = 2.8326 lbs. avoirdupois. 

* F. Martin, " Statesman's Year-Book." 



CHAPTER IL 



A SKETCH OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 

Monarchs — the powerful and the strong — 
Famous in history and in song 
Of olden time. 

Longfellow. 

HE history of Egypt is a history of wonder, and 
goes back, as we have said, to a period 
when history can hardly be said to have be- 
gun. From the Chronicle of Manetho, an 
Egyptian sage, compiled about 300 B.C. and founded upon 
documents probably then in existence ; from the evidence 
of hieroglyphical inscriptions abounding on the Nilotic 
monuments, and the papyri discovered among their 
ruins ; and from passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, our 
knowledge of its course of events down to the Persian 
Conquest is chiefly obtained. This knowledge is, on 
many points, very vague and imperfect ; much is hope- 
lessly involved in obscurity ; much depends upon acute 
conjecture ; and for centuries we possess nothing more 
valuable than the names of kings who reigned, died, were 
buried, and are forgotten. Under such circumstances it 
is obvious that the disagreement between modern 
authorities is likely to be considerable, and the following 




30 



THE PHARAONIC ERA. 



summary pretends to no other merit than being the 
result of a very careful comparison between conflicting 
statements. 

Egyptian history divides itself into five eras : — 

a. The Pharaonic, which closed with the conquest of Egypt by 
Cambyses in B.C. 525. 

j8. The Persian, from B.C. 525 to B.C. 332. 

7. The Greek, from B.C. 332, when Alexandria was founded, to 
the death of Cleopatra in B.C. 30. 

5. The Roman, from B.C. 30 to the capture of Alexandria by the 
Arabs in A.D. 640. 

e. The Modem, or Mohammedan, from A.D. 640 to the present 
time. 

It is in discussing the first of these periods that Egypt- 
ologers become involved in a chaos of doubt and supposi- 
tion. 

a. THE PHARAONIC ERA. 

If we may credit Manetho, Egypt was governed by 
thirty dynasties of native rulers, extending, according 
to the Syncellus, over a period of 3553 years. Adding 
this total to B.C. 339, the date of the downfall of the 
thirtieth dynasty, we may trace back the annals of Egypt 
to their hypothetical commencement in B.C. 3892,* 
when the monarchy was founded by a shadowy and un- 
certain personage, named Menes or MEN.f But then 
it- must be remembered that some of the dynasties men- 

* This is the date fixed upon by Lepsius ; but Boekh says 5702 B.C. ; Poole, 
2717 B.C. ; Sharpe, 2000 B.C. ; and Nolan, 2673 B.C. Who shall decide when 
chronologists disagree ? 

f There is good reason to doubt whether such a personage ever existed. His 
name seems connected with the root Man, " to think and speak," which we also 
meet with in the Menu of the Hindus, the Minos of the Greeks, and the Menerfa 
of the Etruscans. — See Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxviii., p. 149. 



THE LAWGIVER OF EGYPT. 



tioned by Manetho may possibly have been contempo- 
raneous ; some reigning at Memphis, others at Thebes, 
others at Sais, — as Dukes of Burgundy ruled at the same 
time as Kings of France, or Kings of Aragon, Leon, 
and Castile divided Spain between them. Xor is it 
known how many sovereigns were included in the thirty 
dynasties; the lowest computation says 300, the highest 
500. 

Herodotus, Eratosthenes, and Manetho, however, all 
agree in making Menes the founder of the monarchy and 
the creator of the city of Memphis. As we are in no 
position to give them an absolute contradiction, let us 
take this as our starting-point. 

At some date between 3000 and 4000 B.C. lived Menes, 
the first lawgiver of Egypt, B.C. 3892. 

His successor, it is said, was named Athothis, and 
built the great palace of Memphis. Other sovereigns of 
this dynasty were Kenkenes ; Knephes, who raised the 
Pyramids at Ko or Kochome ; Miebis ; Semempses ; 
and Bieneches ; but their names have not been identified 
upon any of the monuments. ■ This dynasty lasted for 
253 years. 

The 2nd, or Thinite dynasty, which introduced animal- 
worship,* ruled Egypt for about 300 years ; the 3rd. or 

* In reference to the animal-worship of Egypt, the following remarks seem 
worthy of consideration : — If we are forced to allow that they (the Egyptians) 
were so mad as to offer divine honours to various members of the animal king- 
dom, we shall still see some method in their madness, and can account for their 
seeming frenzy. Did the inhabitants of towns distant from the river worship 
the crocodile ? it was in order that the canals, on which their prosperity depended, 
might be religiously kept in repair under the nominal plea for the convenience 
of the sacred reptile. Was the fish oxyrrynchus worshipped at the inland towns 
of Behnesa. or the River Nile at Xilopolis, nine miles from the great stream? it 



THE THIXITE DYNASTY. 



Memphite, for 200. Here Egyptian history begins, so 
far as it is told on the Egyptian monuments; and we 
learn from their indisputable records that Senefern, 

was for a similar reason ; while Sir Samuel Baker has pointed out that the scara- 
baeus was so highly honoured as the harbinger of the high Nile, because it 
regularly makes its appearance at the season of the flood. Even the extra- 
ordinary veneration shown for the bull Apis, wherein their reverence for an 
animal was carried to an extreme, is explained by their belief that under this 
form the soul of Osiris occasionally condescended to come upon Earth, and so 
they deified the living shrine in which their great god was tabernacled for a time. 
For the reason why the sacred ibis was so highly regarded we have not far to 
seek, inasmuch as the services that bird rendered in destroying the armies of 
locusts (which were the winged serpents of Herodotus) and other noxious 
insects are palpable ; and flights of locusts still occasionally visit Egypt and the 
neighbouring country of Syria in incredible numbers, to the utter destruction of 
the crops, as I have nryself witnessed in the latter country. 

Then, again, the doctrine of transmigration of souls, which was undoubtedly 
entertained as a powerful weapon in the hands of Osiris for chastising those who 
lived wicked lives, in causing them to expiate their crimes under the form of 
various animals, was another strong motive for the reverence they showed to 
the creatures they held sacred, and for the pains they took to embalm their 
bodies after death. 

Then, again, with regard to the animal heads, the hawk, the ibis, crocodile, 
cat, jackal, and others, with which the human figures of the deities are frequently 
surmounted ; though no one can positively assert their meaning, some very 
plausible explanations have been proposed. Thus, it has been thought by some 
that this strange practice originated in the intense reverence that was felt for 
the gods they worshipped, and a consequent disinclination, which English 
Christians can appreciate, to attempt to portray the awful face of the Deity ; 
and therefore they put a mask before the divine countenance, or substituted the 
head of some member of the animal kingdom held sacred in Egypt, for that 
which they dared not represent in its real form. Possibly such animal's head 
likewise betokened the attribute for which the particular deity was notorious ; 
but, at all events, we are not driven to believe that so wise a nation as the 
ancient Egyptians showed themselves to have been, really worshipped the beasts, 
birds, reptiles, and fishes, which are popularly represented as their gods. These 
were the tales in which Herodotus revelled, and yet he could scarcely believe 
such gross superstition, but leads the way to an explanation of their customs, in 
his story of the ram's head attached to the statue of Jupiter Ammon ; while 
Cicero declares that the Egyptian custom of representing the gods with the 
heads of oxen, birds, and other creatures, was introduced in order that people 
might restrain from eating them, or from some other mysterious reason ; one 
object doubtless being to insure the preservation of some animals which were 
valuable for food, and of others which were useful in destroying noxious 
reptiles, or for some similar purpose. — Rev. A. C. Smith, The Nile and iH 
Banks, vol. i., pp. 240-243. 



THE MEM PHI TE DYNASTY. 39 

one of the kings of this dynasty, opened up the copper 
mines of the Wady Magura, and conquered the pen- 




MOUNT SINAI. 

insula of Sinai. How strange a reflection is it that the 
armies of Egypt thus penetrated into the defiles, and 
wound over the rocky passes, of that mighty maze of 

295 A 



4 o THE PYRAMID-KINGS. 

mountains, which afterwards witnessed the revelation of 
the Divine Power on 

" the secret top 
Of Oreb or of Sinai," 

and the long procession of the Israelites as they slowly 
toiled towards the Promised Land ! 

To the 4th dynasty chronologists ascribe an aggre- 
gate duration of 284 years, and some particulars con- 
cerning its more prominent members are contained in 
the hieratic papyrus known as the " Canon of Turin." 
Of Soris there are also monumental records. The two 
Shufus or Chufus erected the mighty Pyramids of El- 
Ghizeh, and subdued Arabia. The elder Shufu is the 
Cheops of Herodotus — who, however, represents him as 
living at a later period : he raised the greater of those 
massive enigmas by forced labour. His brother, Num- 
Shufu, who reigned conjointly with him for several years, 
laid, perhaps, the foundation of the second pyramid ; and it 
was completed bySha-fre, or Chephren, of the 5 th dynasty. 
King Men-ka-re, or Mencheres, the Mycerinus of Herod- 
otus and Diodorus, built the third, in which a mummy 
case, inscribed with the royal founder's name, has been 
discovered.* The most conflicting theories have been 
put forward in reference to the dates of these great works, 
and they are placed by different writers between b.c. 3229 
and B.C. 2352. t _ 

* Yet Manetho asserts that the third pyramid was erected by a queen of the 
sixth dynasty, named Nitocris. 

f Compare Sharpe, " History of Egypt " (London, 1846) ; Lepsius, " K5nigs- 
buch der Alten ^Egyptie'' (Beriin, 1848); Bunsen, "Egypt's Place in the 
World's History;" Poole, "Horae ^Egyptiacae ; " and Kenrick, "Ancient 
Egypt." 



FOURTH TO TWELFTH DYNASTIES. 41 

According to Poole, the 4th dynasty began in B.C. 
2352 ; and the 5th, which came from the island of 
Elephantine, about B.C. 2150. The latter terminated 
with Annos or Ormos, who founded the Pyramid of the 
Mastabat-el-Faroun, near Sakkara, and was killed by his 
household guards. To this dynasty, which seems to have 
ruled over both Upper and Lower Egypt, belong the 
Pyramids at Aboo-Seir. The Memphite kings recovered 
the throne on the death of Annos ; and the 6th dyn- 
asty, of which numerous memorials are extant, contri- 
buted to Egyptian history Othoes ; Phiops, or Apappus 
(b.c. 1920), who reigned, it is said, one hundred years, 
and whose court, according to Sir Gardner Wilkinson, 
was visited by Abraham ; * and Queen Xitocris or Xeet- 
akar-tee, with whom the dynasty closed. 

Of the next four dynasties we know but little. The 
7th seems to have been a period of anarchy, and seventy 
kings (or vice-kings, inter-reges) reigned, it is said, in 
seventy days — a suspicious coincidence of numbers, which 
involves the whole statement in doubt. The 7th and 8th 
dynasties were Memphite; the 9th and 10th, Heracleopoli- 
tan; and the nth, Diospolite, — each dynasty deriving its 
name from the birth-place of its founder. Their rule, if 
Manetho may be credited, extended over five centuries ; 
and their list includes eighty-six (unnamed) kings. 

The founder of the 12th dynasty was Amenemha L, 
who built, or rebuilt, Heliopolis (the On of the Old 
Testament), and reigned for nine years with undivided 
glory, — afterwards, conjointly with Osirtesen I. (b.c. 
1 7 15). The latter succeeded him on the throne, and 

* Sir G. Wilkinson, "Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians," i. 19. 



4^ 



THE LABYRIXTH OF AMEXEMHA. 



appointed the Hebrew Joseph his prime-minister or 
vicerov. His monuments mar be seen both at Heli- 
opolis and at Beni-hassan. He subdued forty Ethiopian 
tribes, and in the thirtieth year of his reign, shared the 
burden of his empire with Amenemha II. Then came 
Osirtesen II. . who finally subjugated Ethiopia ; and, in 
due succession, Osirtesen III., who carried the frontiers 
of the empire further south, and won so great a renown 
that, after his death, he was apotheosized ; Amenemha 
III. : Amenemha IV. ; and Queen Sebeknefru. 

To Amenemha III. are ascribed the great w T orks of the 
excavation of the Mceris Lake ; the erection of the 
Pyramid at Crocodilopolis ; of the Temple of Athor at 
Sarabout-el-Khadem ; and of the world-famous Labyririth. 
This curious and mysterious structure was built wholly 
of polished stone. It contained three thousand chambers, 
half above ground, and half below. The Temples of Ephe- 
sus and Samos, says Herodotus,* may justly claim admira- 
tion, and the Pyramids may be individually compared to 
many of the magnificent structures of Greece, but even 
these are inferior to the Labyrinth. It is composed of 
twelve courts, all of which are covered : their entrances 
stand opposite to each other, six to the north and six to 
the south ; one wall encloses the whole. Of the apart- 
ments above the ground I can speak, continues Herodo- 
tus, from my own knowledge and observation ; of those 
below, from the information I received. The Egyptians 
who had charge of the latter would not suffer me to see 
them ; and their reason was, that in them were preserved 



* Herodotus, book ii. "E-terpe" . § 14S. Compare with Bunsec, ".Egyptens- 



DESCRIPTION OF THE LABYRIXTH. 



43 



the sacred crocodiles, and the bodies of the kings who 
constructed the Labyrinth. Of these, therefore, I do not 
presume to speak ; but the upper apartments I myself 
visited, and I pronounce them among the grandest 
efforts of human industry and art. The almost infinite 
number of winding passages through the different courts 
excited my highest admiration : from spacious halls I 
passed through smaller chambers, and from them again 
to large and magnificent saloons, almost without end. 
The walls and ceilings are of marble, the latter embel- 
lished with the most exquisite sculpture ; around each 
court pillars of the richest and most polished marble are 
arranged ; and at the termination of the Labyrinth stands 
a pyramid one hundred and sixty cubits high, approached 
by a subterranean passage, and with its exterior enriched 
by huge figures of animals. 

The object of the Egyptian kings in constructing this 
gigantic work cannot even be conjectured. It is ascribed 
to various monarchs, and its site cannot be accurately 
determined ; but, in reference to the first point, the truth 
would seem to be that its erection occupied a long period 
of years, and that it was enlarged at successive periods ; 
on the second, we may observe that though the ruins 
visited and identified by modern travellers do not exactly 
agree with the accounts of Herodotus and Pliny, yet 
there is good reason to believe they formed a portion of 
the outer buildings, though injured by time, and mutilated 
by barbarism. 

The 13th dynasty numbered sixty Diospolite kings, 
who reigned, it is said, 453 years ; and the 14th, seventy- 
six Xoite kings, extending over 184 years. 



THE SHEPHERD KINGS, 



The 1 5th, 16th, and 17th dynasties belonged to the 
Hyksos, or Shepherd kings, who were invaders, ap- 
parently of Arab race : * who, during a period of in- 
testine convulsion, made themselves masters of Egypt ; 
fixed their capital at Memphis ; constructed in the Sethro- 
ite nome a colossal fortification or earth-camp, called 
Abaris ; and eventually divided the conquered country 
into two independent kingdoms, one in the Thebaid, 
and another at Xois. Xo monuments perpetuate the 
name and fame of these invaders, having probably been 
destroyed by the Egyptians when they regained their in- 
dependence. So proud a people would be unwilling to 
hand down to posterity any permanent record of their 
subjection to a foreign and inferior race. 

According to Manetho, they ruled over Egypt for 511 
years. About B.C. 1525. they were expelled by Aah-mes I. 
of the iSth dynasty, who reunited Upper and Lowe: 
Egypt. Thothmes I. (Thutmosis) conquered Nubia, and 
extended the renown of his arms as far as Mesopotamia. 
Then came Thothmes II. : and after him, Thothmes III., 
who won a great victory at Megiddo, subjugated Syria 
and Mesopotamia, and exacted tribute from Phoenicia. 
Babylon, Assyria, and the fair islands of the Archipelago. 
From an extant astronomical record it is believed that 
the year B.C. 1444 fell in the reign of this able and 
successful monarch, — the " Edward the First " of Egyptj 
—a great administrator and a famous warrior. 

The glory of the dynasty was well maintained by 
Amunophis II., who captured Nineveh; and by Thoth- 
mes IV., who is reputed to have erected that singular 

* Heeren, ''Historical Researches. " ii. 714. 



THE R AMES SID DYNASTY. 



45 



but majestic type of Egyptian beauty, the colossal 
Sphinx. Amunophis IV. introduced the worship of a 
god named Aten, and the " heresy " continued to flourish 
under three of his successors, until " the fair humanities 
of the old religion " were restored by Hor-em-heb, or 
Horus. 

Under the 18th and 19th dynasties the Land of the 
Nile waxed prosperous, powerful, and wealthy ; attaining, 
perhaps, its highest point of civilization, and the most 
majestic development of its art. With the 19th dynasty 
began the era of the Ramessids ; Rameses I. extending 
the boundary of his kingdom to the Wady Haifa, in 
Nubia. Seethee L, or Sethos, was a renowned warrior, 
an Egyptian Tullus Hostilius, bred in the camp, and 
rejoicing in the " fierce delight ;J of battle. He invaded 
Syria and Mesopotamia, and chastised the insolence of the 
Phoenicians. In Asia he learned the worship of the deities 
Baal and Astarte, and introduced it into his own kingdom. 

It is said that his son, Rameses II., succeeded to the 
crown in his childhood. A notable fact of this monarch's 
reign is his capture of Saluma or Salem, the precursor of 
Jerusalem. By his successes in the battle-field he com- 
pelled Syria to sue for peace, and a princess of that 
nation became his queen. His attention appears to 
have been largely devoted to maritime affairs, and it is 
recorded that his fleet — manned ; I suppose, by Asiatics 
— swept up and down the Mediterranean. Did any 
Egyptian vessels, I wonder, pass the Straits of Gibraltar, 
and navigate our western waters 1 All the exploits which 
are attributed to him could hardly have been crowded 
into the life of one man, however able and energetic, 



46 



RAMESES THE SECOND. 



and he appears, in the course of time, to have gathered 
to himself no small portion of the renown properly be- 
longing to his successors ; a process which 7 takes place in 
all ancient and legendary history. The people love to 
invest their favourite hero with every grand achievement 
whose tradition lingers in the national memory \ and thus 
he becomes, as it were, the focus which draws to, and 
concentrates in, itself the scattered rays of light. 

Seventeen centuries after he had been interred in the 
superb temple which his genius and power erected at 
Thebes, Germanicus visited that once-famous capital ; 
and the Egyptian priests, as Tacitus relates,* read to him 
from the monumental records the deeds and victories, 
the treasures and the tributes, the resources and subject- 
realms of this great king. His empire stretched north- 
ward to the shores of the Caspian Sea ; southward, 
beyond the second cataract * westward, to the interior of 
the Desert ; and eastward, it included Arabia. 

He was succeeded by his thirteenth son, Merien-ptah, 
or Ptah-men, who made Memphis his capital, and is now 
generally identified with the Pharaoh of the Exodus. t 
He introduced the heretical worship of Typhon, or Seth 
— Satan — the Principle of Evil. 

Of his successors, Sethos II., Amenmes, Sipthah, 
Tausri, and Setinekt, few particulars are recorded. We 
gather their names from two important and authentic 
monuments, the " Tablet of Abydus," and the " Tablet 
of Karnak." 

* Tacitus, 4 'Annals," ii. 60. 

f This identity was first suggested by Lord Prudhoe (the late Duke of Nor- 
thumberland'. See Rawlinson's " Herodotus," ii. 366. Wilkinson places the 
Exodus in the leign of Thothmes III. ("Ancient Egyptians," i. 47). 



A GLANCE A T HEBRE W HISTOR Y. 



47 



We next arrive at the epoch of the 20th dynasty, which 
was wholly composed of kings of the name of Rameses, 
and illustrated by the genius of Rameses III.,* who 
subdued a revolt in Ethiopia, and gained several sea- 
battles in the Mediterranean. It fell from its " high 
estate" through some religious convulsion, and the priests 
of Amun Ra at Thebes were elevated to the throne 
under the name of the Tanite kings, ruling Egypt foi 
about 130, or, according to some authorities, 150 years. 
Next followed the Bubastite, or 22nd dynasty, supposed 
to have descended from foreign settlers in Bubastis,f 
and to have been of Shemitic origin.- 

We now come upon a reliable synchronism with 
Hebrew history ; Sheshonk — the Sesonchosis of the 
Greeks — being the Shishak of the Old Testament, who 
captured Jerusalem about B.C. 97 2. % His name is in- 
scribed, with a record of his achievements, on the pro- 
pylon of the great temple of Karnak. 

His successor, Osorthen or Osorcho, is probably the 
Zerah of the Bible, who was defeated at Mareshah by 
Asa, king of Judah. § 

Under the 23rd (another Tanite) dynasty Egypt greatly 
declined in power, and at the close of the 24th, was 
subjugated by Ethiopia, its last monarch, Bocchoris, 
being captured in battle, and burned . alive. Sabaco, or 
Sebichos, who founded the 25th or Ethiopian dynasty, 

* Some Egyptologists make the dynasty to have begun with Rameses IV., and 
ascribe to him the military achievements related in the text. 

t Now called Tel-Bustak, on the Pelusiac Nile, about 70 miles from its mouth. 

X 2 Chronicles xii. 1-10. See also Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews," viii. 
10, 3. 

§ 2 Kings xvii. 4 ; 2 Chronicles xiv. S, 9. 



4S 



THE TWELVE KINGS. 



flourished about B.C. 730-720. He is the So of the 
Hebrew records, with whom Hoshea, king of Israel, en- 
tered into an alli- 
ance; while his succes- 
sor, Tarkus, is iden- 
tified with the TirJia- 
ka/i, king of Ethiopia, 
the enemy of Assy- 
ria and Sennacherib* 
(Isa. xxxvii. 9). He 
reigned from about 

B.C. 7 20 tO B.C. 710. 

A period of intes- 
tine trouble followed 
his death, fermented 
apparently by foreign 
interference, and sig- 
nificant of the rapid 
decay of the empire. 
Sethos, a priest of 
Phtah, is said to have 
seized the sovereign 
power, and to have ruled despotically, degrading the mili- 
tary caste, and confiscating their lands. After him came 
the Dodekarchy, or Twelve Kings, who probably reigned 
contemporaneously, and each over a semi-independent 
province, united only for resistance to foreign aggression 
(b.c. 700-670). They were overthrown, however, with the 
aid of Greek and Phoenician mercenaries, by Psammeti- 
chus I., of the 26th dynasty, who reigned fifty-four years, 

* Wilkinson. "Ancient Egyptians," i. 138-112. 




TIRHAKAH, KING OF EGYPT. 



' ' PHA RA OH NEC HO." 



49 



and welded Egypt into a compact kingdom (b.c. 671-617;. 
He introduced several important reforms ; had his son 
instructed in Greek letters; instituted a caste of interpre- 
ters, or dragomans, intermediator) 7 between the natives 
and foreigners ; and in the place of the militia estab- 
lished a regular army of Hellenic troops. 

His successor, Nechao, Nekas, or Neco, the Pharaoh 
Necho of the Old Testament,* reigned sixteen years (b.c. 
617-601). He carried on a great war against the Baby- 
lonian Empire, and defeated its ally, Josiah, king of 
Judah, at Megiddo ; after which he entered Jerusalem 
in triumph, and set upon the throne Eliakim, the 
younger brother of Jehoahaz. He penetrated into Assyria, 
but after four years of victory, was defeated at Carchemish, 
or Circesium, on the Euphrates, by Nebuchadnezzar, and 
forced to flee into Egypt. 

He was unquestionably a monarch of signal capacity 
and adventurous spirit. At his command a Phoenician 
fleet attempted the circumnavigation of Africa ; and he 
constructed, or, at all events, commenced, a canal be- 
tween the Red Sea and the Nile. It left the river near 
the modern town of Belbeis ; and ran east and south to 
Suez. 

Necho was succeeded by his son Psammis, or Psam- 
metichus II. (b.c. 601-595), who restored the Egyptian 
supremacy over Ethiopia. Great calamities befell the 
empire in the reign of Apries, the " Uaphris " of the 
monuments, and the Pharaoh Hophra of the Scriptures. 
Lower Egypt was invaded by Nebuchadnezzar; and 
Western Egypt by the Greeks, who defeated him at 

* 2 Kings xxiii. 29-34. 



5o 



THE PERSIA X IN I 'AS/OX. 



Irusa (Am Erseti). Soon afterwards he was deposed 
and strangled by a successful soldier, Amasis, Amosis, 
or Aah-mes II., with whom we are familiarized by 
Greek history. He reigned forty-four years (B.C. 570- 
526) ; was in league with the Greeks; wedded a Greek 
beauty; was visited by Solon and Pythagoras ; cultivated 
arts and letters; and promoted the well-being of his 
people. 

Herodotus describes the close alliance that existed 
between him and Polycrates, the "king" or " tyrant"' of 
Samos, until the Egyptian monarch grew alarmed at the 
latter s unchanging prosperity. He advised him, in order 
to avert the anger of the gods, to throw away some 
valuable possession ; and Polycrates accordingly flung 
into the sea a costly signet-ring of curious workmanship. 
The day afterwards, however, a fisherman presented the 
king with a singularly large fish that he had caught, and 
in its belly was found a ring. Thereupon Amasis with- 
drew from all relations with a man whose ominously 
good fortune predestined him to some melancholy catas- 
trophe. 

The truth, however, would seem to be that the Greek 
thalassocrat^ or " sea-king."' broke the alliance and leagued 
himself with Persia, when the latter power bade more 
highly for his support* 

In the reign of Psammenitus, which only lasted six 
months (b.c. 525), the Persians invaded Egypt under 
their great king Cambyses, defeated the Egyptians at 
Pelusium, and reduced the country to the rank of a 
Persian province, or satrapy. 

* Grote, " History of Greece," iv. 323. 



A GREEK VISITOR TO EGYPT, 51 
ft. THE PERSIAN ERA. 

The 27th Egyptian dynasty, thus founded by the 
sword of Cambyses,* included eight Persian kings, and 
extended over a period of 124 years (e.g. 525-401), 
disturbed by constant revolts of the Egyptians against 
their foreign rulers. 

During the reigns of Xerxes (e.c. 486-460), who 
crushed a dangerous revolt, and afterwards unsuccess- 
fully attempted the invasion of Greece ; and of Artax- 
erxes Longimanus (B.C. 460-413), the country was 
convulsed by the insults which the Persians offered to 
the ancient religion. An insurrection was quelled in 
B.C. 456 by the satrap Megabyzus. 

It was during the rule of Artaxerxes that Herodotus 
visited Egypt, and at 
Heliopolis and Thebes 
collected those precious 
notes in reference to 
its history, religion, an- 
tiquities, and social life, 
which are of such value 
to the modern student. 
The Land of the Nile 
is photographed in his 
pages with a wonder- 
ful fidelity ; and his 
graphic account of its refined civilization, and its miracles 

* Cambyses, pursuing his schemes of conquest, afterwards led his army into 
the deserts of Ethiopia, where it was destroyed. He then went mad with 
shame, and plunged into an excess of debauchery and cruelty. 




HERODOTUS. 



52 WHAT HERODOTUS TELLS US. 

of art and science, furnishes us with one of the most 
vivid and interesting pictures of the past preserved in 
ancient history. He describes the Egyptians as " ex- 
tremely religious, and surpassing all men in the worship 
they rendered to the gods." They were so regardful of 
cleanliness that " they wore only linen, and that newly 
washed." Wheat and barley they considered to be food 
unworthy of men ; beans they regarded as sacred. In 
health and constitution no people was to be compared 
with them. The women left to the men the manage- 
ment of the loom, while " they themselves were engaged 
abroad in the business of commerce." Their physicians 
were each confined to the study and treatment of one 
particular disease. There were no priestesses in Egypt, 
"in the service either of male or female deities." Their 
country, he adds, contained more wonders than any 
other, and there was no region in all the world where 
one could see so many works which were so truly ad- 
mirable. He highly praises the sanitary arrangements 
of the people ; their domestic morality, for each Egyptian 
was the "husband of one wife;" their industiy, and in- 
ventive genius. In a word, it is evident, from the warmth 
and fulness of his elaborate descriptions, that he looked 
upon them as a superior race.* 

The 28th dynasty contains only one name, that of 
Amyrtaeus of Sais (b.c. 413-407), who was overthrown 
in a successful rebellion of the Egyptians, slain, and 
interred in a superb sarcophagus of green breccia, now 
preserved in the British Museum. The revolt against 
the Persians was maintained by the kings of the 29th 

* Herodotus, book sections 35-96, passim. 



THE GREEKS ENTER EGYPT. 



S3 



and 30th dynasties, whose names are given by some 
authorities as follow : — 

29th or Mendesian dynasty : Nepherches (B.C. 407-402) ; Achoris, 
or Acoreus (B.C. 402-387). 

30th or Sebennytic dynasty: Nectanebus I. (B.C. 387-361); 
Tachos, or Teos, who employed Agesilaus of Sparta to fight against 
the Persians (B.C. 361-351) ; and Nectanebus II. (b.c. 351-350). 

Nectanebus II. — the last of the Egyptian Pharaohs 
— was defeated by Bagoas and Mentor, the generals of 
Darius Ochus, and compelled to flee into Ethiopia. 
Thus terminated the succession of Egyptian kings, after 
enduring for a period of 3553 years. 

y. THE GREEK ERA. 

The mission of Egypt in the great economy of the 
world's history may now be considered to have ter- 
minated. The spirit of the ancient race, long a flicker- 
ing flame, died out completely after the conquest of 
Egypt by Alexander. The nation was well prepared 
for the change. A long commercial and military in- 
tercourse with Greece had saturated it with Greek 
ideas; though the Hellenes were not exempt from a 
reciprocal influence, and the literature, art, and religion 
of Greece had been coloured to no inconsiderable extent 
by the literature, art, and religion of the Land of the 
Pharaohs. Hellenic colonies had sprung up along the 
shore of the Red Sea. The Thebaid had been tra- 
versed by Greek historians and philosophers. k Greek 
soldiers mustered in the Egyptian court. Greek settle- 
ments were planted about the fertile fields of the Delta. 
The condition of things obtaining in Egypt in the fifth 



54 



ALEXANDER IN EGYPT. 



and fourth centuries before Christ may, in truth, be 
compared to that which prevailed in England during 
the reign of Edward the Confessor ; so that the people 
in each country underwent, as it were, a long prepara- 
tion for the introduction of a new dynasty and an alien 
government. Just as England was Normanized before 
the Conquest, so, but to a far greater extent, Egypt was 
Hellenized before its subjugation to Alexander. 

The Macedonian monarch invaded Egypt in B.C. 332. 
Pelusium received him willingly, and Memphis threw 
wide its gates. The politic respect he paid to the re- 
ligion of the country secured him the hearts both of the 
priests and people ; and his firm and equitable govern- 
ment was gladly welcomed after the vacillating des- 
potism of Persian satraps. Nor could the Egyptians fail 
to be gratified by the evident interest he displayed in 
their manners, their customs, their history, and traditions. 
To Alexander himself Egypt was a land of no ordinary 
attraction, because it offered, as he believed, the solu- 
tion of the question agitated from his very birth, whether 
he was not only the descendant of Hercules and Achil- 
les, but the true and actual son of Jove \ For this 
purpose he marched into the Libyan Desert, and con- 
sulted the famous oracle of the god, worshipped there 
under his most ancient name of Amnion (Amun). The 
response which he received entirely satisfied him. The 
god, it was said, saluted him as his son ; and thence- 
forth his coins assumed the divine symbol of a ram's 
horn. 

Alexander introduced no violent changes into the 
laws and local government of the Egyptians, while 



FOUNDATION OF ALEXANDRIA. 



55 



providing a firmer rule and a more even administration 
of justice. He restored the privileges of the priests, 
and repaired the temples of the deities. The defence 
of the country he intrusted to a Greek force : and he 
established two great military posts ; one at Pelusium, 
as the key of the Nile Valley ; 
and the other at Memphis, as 
the centre of Lower Egypt. 
Descending the river from the 
latter capital, he was struck by 
the capabilities of the little town 
of Rhacotis, situated on a narrow 
neck of land between Lake 
Mareotis and the Mediterranean, 
to become the site of a great com- 
mercial city; and connecting it 
with the isle of Pharos* by a (Canini iconografia.) 
causeway (called the Heptastadiu?7i, or three-quarters of a 
mile), he founded there Alexa?idria (b.c. 332). On each 
side of the causeway was a harbour, and the two ports 
were linked with each other by two channels through the 
Heptastadium, and by another with the Lake Mareotis, 
which, in its turn, communicated with the Nile by 
numerous canals. The city was laid out in two chief 
streets \ one, running east and west, measured nearly 
four miles in length ; the other, north and south, up- 
wards of a mile. The ground-plan of the city was traced 
by Alexander himself, and carried out by his favourite 
architect Deinocrates. 

* From the lighthouse afterwards erected here by Ptolemy II., Philadelphia, 
every similar structure was afterwards called by Greek and Roman a Pharos, 
',295) 5 




56 HELLEXIC REVOLUTIOX IX EGYPT. 



On the death of the great conqueror in B.C. 323. the 
vast empire constructed by his genius fell to pieces, like 

a magnificent arch from which 
the keystone has been with- 
drawn ; and in the division 
of spoil made by his chief cap- 
tains. Egypt fell to Ptolemy 
Lagus, or Soter, the first of its 
Greek sovereigns. Under the 
sway of this able monarch the 
Land of the Xile was still 
further Hellenized. The old 
Egyptian names were replaced 
by Greek appellations : On 
became Heliopolis, the ;> city 
of the sun;" This was changed to Abydus : Thebes to 
Diospolis Magna ; Pilak to Philae ; Pdnieh to Aphro- 
ditopolis ; as Chcm gave way to .Egyptus. In like 
manner, the abstract religion of the priests of Osirei and 
Ptah was dethroned : and a curious compound of the Old 
and the New. of ancient symbols to which novel mean- 
ings were attached, of a misty philosophical theurgy 
with a poetical mythology, of Egyptian gods with Greek 
attributes, reigned in its stead. 

That science and learning, however, which could no 
longer flourish under the sway of the rude soldier-kings 
of degenerate Greece, found a home in the refined court of 
the Ptolemys ; and Alexandria gathered within its walls 
the erudition of the age. Ptolemy Philadelphus founded 
the celebrated Alexandrian Library : encouraged the 
Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible ; patronized the 




EGYPT UNDER THE PTOLEMYS. 



57 




labours of the historian Manetho. The study of the 
arts and sciences was not less favoured by Philopater ; 
while under the enlightened 
countenance of these cul- 
tivated princes commerce 
rapidly developed, and the 
Delta became a scene of 
prosperous and peaceful 
activity. Half Europe was 
supplied by its merchants 
with corn, and linen, and 
papyrus, with the products 
of Libya, and the rare trea- 
sures of the East. Phila- 
delphus encouraged the 
river traffic by establishing 
a system of police from Cercasorum to Syene, and by 
completing the Pelusiac Canal which Necho had begun. 
He also rebuilt Aennum, or Cosseir. 

Ptolemy III., surnamed Euergetes, or the " Benefac- 
tor," made war upon Syria, and 
extended his conquests as far as 
Babylon and Susa, while his fleets 
swept the Asiatic shores of the 

Mediterranean. But he did not pp^^^^^ j*S j 
neglect the " victories of peace." 
He largely increased the library of 
Alexandria ; and among the wor- 
thies who adorned his court were ptolemy euergetes. 
Eratosthenes, Apollonius Rho- (Viscomi * Iconn - raphie Grecquc) 
dius, and the grammarian Aristophanes. 



PTOLEMY PHILOPATER. 
(Visconti, Iconographie Grecque.) 




5S 



A BRUTAL DESPOT. 



In the reign of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, the Romans 
began to interfere in Egyptian affairs. He proved a 
degenerate scion of a noble race; and his misgovernment 
dealt a death-blow at the prosperity of the kingdom. 
He was poisoned by some of his followers while pre- 
paring for an expedition into Syria. 

The sixth of the race was Philometor, virtually a 
nominee of the Roman Senate, but a cultivated and 
generous sovereign. He was succeeded by the brutal 
Euergetes II., nicknamed Physcon, or the " Big Bellied," 
and Kakergetes, or the " Malefactor," whose reign was 
a prolonged Saturnalia of lust, greed, and cruelty. He 
married his sister Cleopatra, who was also his brother's 
widow ; and on the bridal day murdered her infant son 
Eupator, who had been proclaimed king. He afterwards 
divorced Cleopatra, and married her daughter by her first 
husband, and consequently his niece. His subjects re- 
belled, and placed Cleopatra on the throne. He then 
murdered his and her son, and as a birth-day gift sent to 
her the poor lad's head and hands. Three years afterwards 
he recovered his crown. The equal of Nero and Tiberius 
in blood-thirstiness, he resembled them in his literary and 
artistic tastes, and wrote a work in twenty-four books, 
called Hypomnkmata ( e Y7ro/xv^/xaTa), or " Memoirs." 

Passing over some monarchs of less note, we arrive 
at the epoch of Ptolemy XII. The will of his father 
had placed the guardianship of the Egyptian kingdom in 
the Roman Senate, while it nominated him and his 
sister Cleopatra, both under age, as successors to the 
throne.* In accordance with the national custom, this 

* Caesar. " De Bello Civili," bk. iii., c. 108. 



CLEOPATRA AND JULIUS CAESAR. 



59 



joint authority had been cemented by the marriage of 
the brother and the sister, — the former of whom was 
seventeen, the latter twelve years of age — a daring, 
ardent, able woman, and a dazzling beauty, — 

" With swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes." 

Having been driven from Alexandria by a popular in- 
surrection, her brother's ministers took occasion to 
exclude her from her share in 
the sovereignty. But a new actor 
now appeared on the scene in 
the person of Julius Caesar (b.c. 
48). The dethroned queen ob- 
tained admission to his pres- 
ence, and fascinated with her 
charms the conqueror of the 
world. He espoused her cause ; 
reduced Pelusium, the key of 
Egypt ; crossed the Nile at the 
head of the Delta \ and totally 
defeated the army of Ptolemaeus, 
who, attempting to save himself 
by flight, was drowned in the 
river.* The Alexandrians then 
submitted to the victor, who 
placed a Roman garrison in the 
capital, and acknowledged Cleo- 
patra as queen of Egypt. 

It is not my intention here to trace the career of this 
extraordinary woman. It will suffice if I remind the 




JULIUS CAESAR. 
(Visconti, Iconographie Romaine.) 



* Merivale. " History of the Romans under the Empire," ii. 322. 



6o 



DEATH OF THE EGYPTIAN QUEEN. 



reader that after Caesar's death she threw the magic of 
her beauty and her address over Antonius, who loaded 

her, and the children he had by 




MARCUS ANTONIUS. 



her, with magnificent donations; 
that her fatal influence enticed him 
into the path of ruin and dishonour; 
that through her cowardice or treach- 
ery she lost him the battle of Ac- 
tium and the dominion of the world ; 
that she failed in her attempt to 
enthral his conqueror, the cold and 
wary Augustus ; and finally, that to 
avoid figuring in a Roman triumph, 

(Yisconti, Iconosrraphie Romaine.) i • -i i •■, , 

she terminated her wild and pas- 
sionate life by her own hand (b.c. 30). 

The manner of her death, however, is not certainly 

known. It seems, says Canon 
Merivale,* that there were no 
marks of violence on her per- 
son, nor did any spots break out 
upon it, such as usually betray 
the action of poison. But the 
experiments she was reported to 
have made on the bite of ven- 
omous reptiles were remem- 
bered; these were coupled with 
the story of the basket of figs 
conveyed to her immediately before her death, in which 
such means of destruction might easily have been con- 




CLEOPATRA. 
(Visconti, IconogTaphie Grecque. 



At last it came to be generally asserted and 



cealed. 

* Merivale, " History of the Romans under the Empire 



A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



61 



believed that her arms were found slightly punctured as 
by the fangs of an asp. Such, too, was the account 
which Octavius himself circulated. And when the effigy 
of the Egyptian Beauty was carried in his triumph, she 
was represented recumbent on a couch, an asp clinging 
to either arm, and the sleep of death stealing slowly 
through every limb : — 

" Brachia spectavi sacris admorsa colubris, 
Et trahere occultum membra soporis iter." * 

The chronology of the Ptolemys is as follows : — 



B.C. 

Ptolemy L 5 Lagus, or Soter , 323 

Ptolemy II., Philadelphia 285 

Ptolemy III., Euergetes 267 

Ptolemy IV., Eupator 222 

Ptolemy V., Epiphanes 205 

Ptolemy VI, Philometor I Si 

Ptolemy VII., Physcon, or Euergetes II 146 

Ptolemy VIII., Lathyrus, or Soter II 1 17-107 

Ptolemy IX., or Alexander 1 107-90 

Ptolemy VIII. restored, B.C. 90-81. 

Ptolemy X., or Alexander II Si 

Ptolemy XL, Dionysius, or Auletes So 

Ptolemy XII., and Cleopatra 51 

Defeat and death of Ptolemy XII., B.C. 46. 

Ptolemy XIII., and Cleopatra 46 

Ptolemy is poisoned by his sister, Cleopatra, 
B.C. 43. 

Cleopatra 43 



Cleopatra commits suicide, B.C. 30. 



Propertius, lib. iii., xi., 53. 



62 



ROMAN DIVISIONS OF EGYPT. 



8. THE ROMAN ERA. 

After the battle of Actium and the death of Cleopatra, 
Egypt ceased to exist as an independent kingdom. It 
was incorporated into the Roman Empire, and governed 
by a prefect (Praefectus Augusta lis), who held his ap- 
pointment direct from the Caesar, and was only re- 
sponsible to him. He was also selected from the eques- 
trian order, the post being one of too great an importance 
to be bestowed upon a senator, whom it might have 
tempted to the assertion of independence. It was 
divided into three great districts, called Epistrategiae : — 
Upper Egypt (Thebais), capital, Ptolemais ; Middle 
Egypt (Heptanomis); and Lower Egypt, capital, Alex- 
andria. Each was subdivided into nomes, the nomes 
into toparchies, the toparchies into kCq/ulo.l and To-n-oi 
(kbmai and topoi). The military force consisted of two 
Regions, who were principally stationed at Elephantine 

and Parembole in the south ; at a 
strong fort on the frontiers of the 
Thebaid and Heptanomis ; at Pa- 
retonium in Libya ; and at Mem- 
phis and Alexandria in the Delta. 
With their usual energy the Romans 
largely developed the revenue and 
resources of the country, until it 
became the rich and abounding 
granary of the Empire. It was 
visited in the reign of Tiberius by 
his son-in-law Germanicus, who 
consulted the sacred bull Apis 




GEKM ANICUS. 
(From a medal in the Florentine 
Museum.) 



EGYPT UNDER THE ROMANS. 



63 



and received an oracular response prophetic of his future 
misfortunes. At a later period the Emperor Hadrian 
ascended the Nile as far as Thebes, and in memory 
of his favourite, the beautiful Antinous, raised the city 
of Antinoopolis on the east bank of the river (in lat. 
26 30' N.). 

The first great revolt of Egypt against its foreign rulers 
occurred in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. It seems to 
have been promoted by, and, perhaps, was wholly con- 
fined to, the native soldiery. After lasting four years 
(a.d. 1 7 1— 1 75), it was crushed by Avidius Cassius. The 
imperial authority was soon afterwards re-established. 

In a.d. 193 Pescennius Niger proclaimed himself 
Emperor, but was defeated and slain at Cyzicus, a.d. 196. 
Egypt was then visited by Severus, who examined the 
memorials of antiquity at Thebes and Memphis. In the 
reign of Caracalla Egyptians were admitted to the Roman 
Senate ; and the worship of Isis, which had long been 
established in the Roman cities, was publicly sanctioned. 

In Egyptian history the 
next important event was 
the conquest of the land- 
by Zenobia, the great queen 
of Palmyra, a.d. 269. She 
occupied it, however, for a 
few months only, and in 
a.d. 273 was herself con- 
quered by the Roman Em- 
peror, Aurelian. Imme- 
diately upon her downfall 
the standard of revolt was 




64 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY, 



raised on the banks of the Nile by her friend and ally, 



the hope of freedom, assumed the imperial purple at 
Alexandria, coined money, issued edicts, and^ raised an 
army, which speedily fled before the veteran troops of Aure- 
lian. Firmus was captured, tortured, and put to death. 

A period of anarchy and confusion marked the reigns 
of Probus and Diocletian, who were frequently called 
upon to suppress the revolts of their Egyptian subjects. 
Afterwards, the country suffered severely from the rage 
of religious factions, who persecuted one another, as each 
alternately attained to power, with the unrelenting hate 
and cruel vengeance of fanaticism. A fierce warfare, 
moreover, was maintained between the rising power of 
Christianity and the decaying influences of Paganism. 
Christian monks dwelt in the Thebaid; Christian bishops 
ruled in Alexandria, which became the theatre of des- 
perate and protracted hostilities between the respective 




(From a medal in the Florentine Museum.) 



THE EMPEROR AURELIAN. 



Firmus, a wealthy mer- 
chant of Egypt, and a na- 
tive of Seleucia.* In the 
course of his trade to India 
he had formed very inti- 
mate relations with the Sa- 
racens and the Blemmyes, 
whose situation on eithei 
coast of the Red Sea gave 
them an easy introduction 
into Upper Egypt, f He 
excited the Egyptians with 



* Vopiscus, " Firmus," c. 5. 

f Gibbon, " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," i. 379. 



FALL OF PAGANISM. 



65 



followers of Arius and Athanasius. In a.d. 379 the 
Emperor Theodosius I. published an edict prohibiting 
the worship of idols, and ordering the temples to be 
closed. Thenceforth the splendid edifices which crowded 
the banks of the Nile — or, at least, so many of them as 
had not been converted into Christian churches — were 
suffered to fall into decay, after being stripped of all 
their gorgeous decorations. So complete a revolution 
was not everywhere effected without opposition, and in 
Alexandria the votaries of Serapis, under the philosopher 
Olynthus, defended with arms the altar of their god. 
But the wrath of the Christians was stimulated by their 
archbishop, Theophilus, and the superb structure, raised 
by the first Ptolemy, which had so long been the pride 
and glory of the city, was levelled to the dust (a.d. 398). 

The colossal statue of the god was involved in the fate 
of his shrine and religion. The story ran, that if any 
impious hand dared to profane its majesty, the heaven 
and the earth would straightway be reduced to their 
primeval chaos. An intrepid soldier, fired by religious 
zeal and wielding a heavy battle-axe, ascended a 
ladder; he dealt a vigorous stroke at the cheek of 
Serapis ; it fell to the ground : yet the heavens did not 
fall, and the earth did not shake. He repeated his 
blows ) the huge idol was shivered into fragments, and 
its limbs were ignominiously dragged through the streets 
of Alexandria amidst the shouts and derision of the popu- 
lace. Even the Pagans acknowledged their contempt for 
a god who could not save his own image from destruction.* 



* This incident is related by Gibbon, and by Milman in his " History of 
Christianity." The original authority is Sozomen, book vii. 



66 



DECADENCE OF EGYPT. 



It is to be regretted that on this occasion the valuable 
library of Alexandria was pitilessly ravaged. 

€. THE MODERN ERA. 

Converted to Christianity, and permanently brought 
under the influences of Western civilization, the history 
of Egypt, as a peculiar and independent nation, with a 
distinct faith and an original literature, must be regarded 
as closed. Over its later annals the reader will be con- 
tent to pass with rapidity. In a.d. 618 it was conquered 
by the Persians. In a.d. 640 it was subjugated by 
Amrou, the general of the Khalif Omar, and so com- 
pletely, that Mohammedanism has thenceforth remained 
its established creed, and its entire polity has assumed a 
Mohammedan character. Previous to this great event 
the country had begun to decline in prosperity, and so 
much of wealth and commerce as it retained lingered 
only in Lower Egypt. Yet when Amrou described to 
the Khalif the condition of Alexandria, he could still re- 
port that the city contained 4000 palaces, 4000 public 
baths, 400 theatres, 40,000 Jews who paid tribute, and 
12,000 persons who sold herbs. 

Under the rule, first of the Arabs, and afterwards of 
the Turks, the decadence of Egypt was greatly acceler- 
ated ; and the discovery, in 1497, of a passage to India 
round the Cape of Good Hope, by diverting the current 
of Indian commerce, dealt a fatal blow at its fortunes. 
For six centuries the virtual rulers of Egypt were those 
fierce and brutal soldiers of Tartar origin, the Mame- 
lukes, who, from the epoch of their murder of the Sultan 
Selim in 1260, until they were finally crushed by Mehemet 



MASSACRE OF THE MAMELUKES. 



69 



Ali in 181 1, overawed and intimidated the Turkish 
lieutenants.* 

Mehemet Ali was a man of extraordinary vigour and 
resolution, and after his confirmation to the pashalik of 
Egypt by Sultan, he determined on ridding himself of 
those turbulent soldiery. For this purpose he devised a 
characteristic stratagem. He summoned the Mameluke 
Beys to Cairo, on the pretence that he wished to consult 
them with reference to a campaign against the Wahabees 
of Arabia. As his son Toussoun had just been invested 
by the Sublime Porte with the dignity of Pasha of the 
second order, the occasion was one of festivity as well as 
of policy. The Beys, therefore, mounted their finest 
horses and donned their richest apparel, forming the 
most splendid cavalry in the world (March 1, 181 1). 

After receiving a most flattering welcome from the 
Pasha, they were invited to parade in the court of the 
citadel. Without suspicion they defiled within its lofty 
walls ; the portcullis fell behind the last of their glitter- 
ing array ; too late, they perceived, as Eliot Warburton 
remarks, t that their treacherous host had caught them in 
a trap, and they turned to effect their retreat. 

In vain ! Wherever they looked, their eyes rested 
only on barred windows and blank, pitiless walls. Nay ; 
on something more, when incessant volleys poured from 
a thousand muskets upon their defenceless band. This 
. sudden and terrible death they met with a courage 

* They had previously suffered severely during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt 
in 1798, and were defeated in a great battle near the Pyramids. I may add that 
the French were finally expelled from Egypt by the British, under Abercromby, 
in 1801. 

t Eliot Warburton, "The Crescent and the Cross," c. 5. 



70 



REIGN OF ME HEME T ALL 



worthy of their past history ; some with arms folded upon 
their mailed bosoms, and turbaned heads devoutly bent 
in prayer * others with angry brows, and flashing swords, 
and curses which were wasted on the desert air. 

All that superb array of troopers sunk beneath the 
withering and deadly fire • all save one, named Emim 
Bey, who spurred his charger over a pile of his dead and 
dying comrades ; sprang upon the battlements ; the next 
moment he was in the air ; another, and he released him- 
self from his crushed and bleeding horse amid a shower of 
bullets. He fled ; took refuge in the sanctuary of a mosque ; 
and finally escaped into the deserts of the Thebaid. 

Mehemet Ali, taking advantage of the growing weak- 
ness of Turkey, conceived the design of founding an 
independent dynasty in Egypt, and of annexing Syria to 
his dominions. He carried out his design w r ith great 
energy, ably seconded by his son Ibrahim Pasha ; but in 
1840 England interfered. The English fleet, under Sir 
Robert Stopford and Charles Napier, captured the 
fortresses planted along the Syrian coast, and destroyed 
St. Jean d'Acre. A long negotiation ensued, with the result 
of securing the viceroyalty of Egypt in the family of Me- 
hemet Ali, under the nominal suzerainty of the Porte. 

Mental decay incapacitated this extraordinary man for 
the government of his country in June 1848, and his son 
Ibrahim Pasha was accordingly invested with the pasha- 
lik. On his unexpected decease in the following 
November, he was succeeded by his nephew Abbas, 
under whom the adoption of a more liberal and energetic 
administration promoted the development of the extra- 
ordinary resources of Egypt. The transit-trade between 



RECENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY. 



73 



England and her Indian possessions was also one great 
and foremost cause of its increasing prosperity in the 
last quarter of a century. 

To Abbas Pasha, in 1854. succeeded Said Pasha, 
under whose government the trade and commerce of 
Egypt showed a further and considerable increase ; though 
it may be doubted whether any improvement took place 
— or is even now taking place — in the condition of the 
lower classes. On the death of Said Pasha, January 18th, 
1863, the pashalik fell to his nephew, Ismail (born in 
18 1 6), — the eldest surviving son of Ibrahim Pasha, Mehe- 
met Ali's distinguished son, — who has visited France and 
England, and has shown himself capable of appreciating 
the forces of Western civilization. By an imperial firman, 
dated May 14, 1867, he received the title for himself and 
his heirs of Khedive, the Asiatic equivalent for " King." 

The administration of the country is intrusted to a 
Council of State appointed by the King, and consisting of 
four military and four civil dignitaries. These act in 
conjunction with a Ministry divided into five depart- 
ments : war, marine, finance, home, and foreign affairs. 
At the head of each of the seven provinces is placed a 
governor, whose powers are very considerable. 

Among the " events" of Ismail Pasha's reign may be 
named, the construction and completion of the great 
Suez Canal, one of the most remarkable engineering 
enterprises of the age • and the visit of the Prince and 
Princess of Wales, who ascended the Nile in February 
and March 1869, and were received by the Egyptian 
sovereign with a prodigal hospitality, worthy both of the 
host and his illustrious guests. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE RISE AND COURSE OF THE RIVER NILE. 

From thence, through deserts dry, thou journey'st on, 

Nor shrink'st, diminished by the Torrid Zone, 

Strong in thyself, collected, full, and one. 

Anon, thy streams are parcelled o'er the plain ; 

Anon, the scattered currents meet again ; 

Jointly they flow, where Philae's gates divide 

Our fertile Egypt from Arabia's side ; 

Thence, with a peaceful soft descent they creep, 

And seek, insensibly, the distant deep ; 

Till through seven mouths the famous flood is lost, 

On the last limits of our Pharian coast. 

Lucan, Pharsalia, book x., Rowes Translation. 

Thus do they, sir : they take the flow o' the Nile 
By certain scales i' the Pyramid ; they know 
By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if death 
Or prison follow. 

SHAKSPEARE,v2«2^/zjy and Cleopatra. 

See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths 
Into the sea. 

Milton, Paradise Lost. 




banks- 



S the memorials of antiquity — the tombs, 
temples, and monuments of old Egypt — to 
whose description the following pages are 
dedicated, lie in the valley — that is, on the 
of the Nile, it seems desirable we should briefly 



sketch the course of that remarkable river. Apart from 



THE NILE AND THE DESERT 



77 



the physical phenomena attending its annual inundation, 
the mystery which so long hovered about its sources has 
always rendered it an object of wonder and curiosity, 
from the days of Herodotus and Diodorus, Heliodorus 
and Lucan, to those of Speke, Grant, and Sir Samuel 
Baker. 

Everything in Egypt, as Miss Martineau remarks — 
life itself, and all that life includes — depends on the in- 
cessant struggle which the great river maintains against 
the forces of the Desert. The world has witnessed many 
conflicts ; but no other so unresting, so protracted, and 
so sublime as the struggle of these two gigantic Powers. 
The Nile, ever young, because perpetually renewing its 
youth, seems to the inexperienced eye to have no chance 
with its stripling force — a David against a Goliath — 
against the Desert, whose might has never relaxed, from 
the earliest days till now ; but the Goliath has not con- 
quered it. Now and then he has prevailed for a season, 
and the tremblers whose destiny hung on the event have 
cried out that all was over ; but he has once more been 
driven back, and Nilus has risen up again, to do what we 
see him doing in the sculptures — bind up his water-plants 
about the throne of Egypt.* 

From the beginning, continues Miss Martineau, the 
people of Egypt have had everything to hope from the 
River, nothing from the Desert ; much to fear from the 
Desert, and little from the River. What their fear may 
reasonably be, any one may conjecture who has looked 
upon a hillocky expanse of sand, where the little jerboa 
burrow r s, and the hyena prowls at night. Under these hil- 

* Miss Martineau, " Eastern Life : Past and Present." 



DEIFICATION OF THE KILE. 



locks lie temples and palaces, and under the level sands 
a whole city ! The enemy has come in from behind, and 
stifled and buried it. What is the hope of the people from 
the river, any one may witness who, at the regular season, 
sees the people grouped on the eminences, watching the 
advancing waters, and listening for the voice of the crier, 
or the boom of the cannon which is to tell the prospect 
or event of the inundation of the year. The Nile was 
naturally deified by the old inhabitants. It was a god to 
the mass ; and at least one of the manifestations of Deity 
to the priestly order. As it was the immediate cause of 
all they had, and all they hoped for — the creative power 
regularly at work before their eyes, usually conquering, 
though occasionally checked — it was to them the Good 
Power ■ and the Desert became the Evil one. Hence 
originated a main part of their faith, embodied in the alle- 
gory of the burial of Osiris in the sacred stream, whence 
he rose, once a year, to scatter blessings over the earth. 

The sources of this wonderful river — so intimately 
bound up with the fortunes and creed of a great people — 
were long involved in obscurity. Until partly solved by 
the labours of Speke, Grant, and Sir Samuel Baker, the 
problem was one w T hich stimulated the curiosity and foiled 
the ingenuity of geographers. It would be interesting 
both for writer and readers to reproduce the story of the 
Nile from the days of Herodotus to those of Baker, and 
to narrate the attempts of adventurous travellers to reach 
the mysterious source of its head waters. But these pages 
must be devoted to other themes, and we must content 
ourselves with a statement of results. 

The Nile, cleared of its mystery, according to Sir 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 



79 



Samuel Baker, resolves itself into comparative simplicity. 
The actual basin of the Nile is included between about 
22 and 39 east longitude, and from 3 to 18 north 
latitude. The drainage of that vast area is monopolized 
by its channel. The Victoria and Albert lakes, the two 
great equatorial reservoirs, are the recipients of all 
affluents south of the equator; the Albert lake being 
the mighty basin in which are concentrated the entire 
waters from the south, in addition to tributaries from 
the Blue Mountains, lying north of the equator. The 
Albert N'yanza is, in fact, the great source of the Nile : 
the distinction between that and the Victoria N'yanza 
being, that the Victoria is a reservoir receiving the eastern 
affluents, and the starting-point whence the river issues 
at the Ripon Falls ; the Albert is a reservoir not only re- 
ceiving the western and southern affluents direct from the 
Blue Mountains, but also the supply from the Victoria and 
from the entire equatorial Nile basin. The Nile, as it 
issues from the Albert N'yanza, is the entire Nile ; prior 
to its birth from the Albert lake it is not the entire Nile.* 

The stream discovered by Speke in 1861, and named 
by him the Somerset, is not the Nile at all, but a duct 
uniting the two great reservoirs of the main river. The 
true Nile is the river which flows out of the Albert 
N'yanza at a point called Mayungo.t 

In general terms we may say, that one of the sources of 
the Nile is the lake called by Speke Victoria N'yanza, 
which occupies the high ground at the base of the Moun- 

* Sir S. Baker, "The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile," &c, i. 304, 
305. 

t Mayungo, in a straight line, is about 200 miles from Gondokoro. 



8o 



COURSE OF THE WHITE KILE. 



tains of the Moon, and is fed by their tributary streams 
and by the heavy equatorial rains. The so-called Somerset 
river flows out of it on the north, just beyond the equator; 
pouring its stream — 150 yards wide — over a mass ol 
igneous rocks, and forming the Ripon Falls, 12 feet high 
lat. o° 20' north, long. 33 30' east. Thence it proceeds 
to the north-west, forms the Karuma Falls, the Murchi- 
son Falls, and joins the great lake explored by Sir 
Samuel Baker in 1864, and which he has named the 
Albert N'yanza (the Luta Nzige of Speke). Out of this 
basin, the White Nile, as it is called — the Bahr-el-Abiaa 
of the Arabs — flows in a north-westerly direction, and 
winds through a comparatively unknown country, until 
it reaches the confines of civilization at Gondokoro, 
which is 1900 feet above the sea level (lat. 4 55' north, 
long. 31 50' east). This is one of the depots of the ivory 
dealers, who occupy it about two months in the year. 
Over a level plain, with a comparatively inconsider- 
able descent, but with a remarkably sinuous course, it 
now proceeds first north-west, and then north-east, for 
some four or five hundred miles, and in lat. 9 15' north, 
long. 30 east, receives its first great affluent, the Bahr-el- 
Gazal, a slow and tranquil stream coming from the west. 
It then takes an easterly direction for So, and a southern 
for 30 miles, swollen by the tributary waters of the 
Giraffe and the Sobat \ and afterwards strikes off due 
north, with a full and steady current, and a breadth vary- 
ing from 1700 to 3600 feet, for nearly 500 miles. 

Thus it arrives at Khartum, the capital of Nubia,* in 
lat. 15° 37' north, and long. 33 east. 

* Kenrick, " Ancient Egypt," i. 349, et sqq. 




MURCHISON FALLS. 



COURSE OF THE BLUE NILE. 83 

But here another great river may be seen, which, for 
generations, was supposed to be the Nile, but is now 
recognized as a minor branch, and distinguished by the 
name of Bahr-el-Azrek, the Blue Nile. It was this stream 
whose sources were explored by Bruce ; but which, with- 
out the volume of waters contributed by the White Nile, 
would be absorbed in the burning deserts before it could 
reach Lower Egypt. 

The Bahr-el-Azrek is formed by the junction of two 
streams : the Abai, which rises in Abyssinia, 50 miles 
from Lake Dembea, and 8700 feet above the sea; and 
the Blue River, whose sources are in the south, and 
which receives the Dender and the Shimfa. At their point 
of junction the Blue Nile is 768 yards broad, and the 
White Nile 483. 

From Khartum the united Nile flows north for 60 
miles, across immense grassy plains — passing Halfaia and 
the famous ruins of Meroe — to its first rapid or so-called 
" cataract." * Thence it sweeps onward, past Shendy, 
to El-Damer, where, in lat. 17 45' north, and long. 34 
east, it is joined by the Atbara, or Tacazze — also named 
the Bahr-el-Aswad, or Black River, an appellation fully 
deserved by the muddy colour of its waters. 

Thence the " exulting and abounding river " traverses 
for 120 miles the rich and populous country of the 
Berbers, soon to enter on widely different scenery — a 
barren, sandy, desolate desert, where the ruins of ancient 
Egypt lie overwhelmed by the sandstorms of centuries. 

* This js the "seventh" cataract from the river's moiith. The ancients be- 
lieved the most marvellous tales concerning these rapids. See the " Somnium 
Scipionis" of Cicero. 



84 AVERAGE FALL OF THE NILE. 



Below the island of Mogreb (lat. 19 north), it makes a 
curve to the south-westward, known as "the Great 
Bend," in which three cataracts occur. It then enters 
Nubia with a north-westerly course, crossing the Desert 
of Bahiouda, forms another cataract, winds round to the 
north-east with a sixth (lat. 21 40' north) — that of Wady 
Haifa * — traverses a much narrower valley, and at 
Assouan (lat. 24 5' 23" north), on the Nubian frontier, 
descends into Egypt in its largest cataract, or rapid. For 
they are rather rapids than cataracts, and caused by the 
encroachment of rocks of granite or porphyry upon the 
channel of the river, which, dividing into several small 
streams, pours its waters through the craggy defiles with 
unwonted impetuosity. When the Nile is at its height, 
during the annual floods, these cataracts almost disap- 
pear, and may be securely passed by a steamer of light 
draught. 

From Assouan to the sea the average fall of the Nile 
is only two inches in 1800 yards, and its average velocity 
does not exceed three miles an hour. Its direction is 
almost due north, with slight occasional divergences to 
the east and north-west. The geological character of its 
valley undergoes many changes ; beginning with lime- 
stone, passing into sandstone, thence again into lime- 
stone, and, below Gebel-el-Mokattam, into the great 
alluvial deposits of the Delta. About 120 miles from its 
mouth, it divides into two branches, which enclose be- 
tween them a triangular area called the Delta (from the 



* Here we enter upon the ruins of ancient Egypt ; the river-banks being 
thenceforward lined with a succession of temples of various styles and eras of 
architecture. 



USEFULNESS OF THE NILE WATERS. 



S5 



Greek letter A), and throw out on either hand numer- 
ous minor streams. This network of rivers and islands 
measures along the Mediterranean coast 150 miles, and 
lies between lat. 30 10' and 31 30' north. 

The total length of the Nile — the creator and preserver 
of Egypt, which it alone has rescued from the Desert, and 
which it still defends against the incessant attacks of the 
shifting sands of the wilderness — is about 3300 miles ; 
and it should be noted that, from its junction with the 
Tacazze to its mouth, it does not receive a single tribu- 
tary, though successfully contending with the sands of 
Nubia and a burning tropical sun. Its annual overflow, 
which for ages has occurred within a few hours of the 
same time, and to within a few inches of the same height, 
is one of the curiosities of physical geography. Upon it 
depends a people's happiness or misery, abundance or 
want. The cultivable soil of Egypt is indebted to the 
rising waters of the Nile for its irrigation. They are 
conducted in hundreds of little channels over the thirsty 
ground. Without them the valley would be a sandy 
waste. The waters, moreover, are loaded with a rich 
black mud, which, deposited upon the soil, proves a 
manure of extraordinary fertilizing properties.* Its in- 
gredients are clay, lime, and silicious sand, in propor- 
tions which vary according to the locality. 

The rise of the Nile is due to the periodical rains of 
eastern Abyssinia and the countries further south, and 
on their greater or less quantity depends the height of 
the inundation. This height is carefully noted, as the 

* Owing to this deposit the soil of Egypt is annually increasing in elevation ; 
but it is a curious fact that the bed of the river is also rising. 



86 



AN INUNDATED COUNTRY. 



extent of land subjected to irrigation, and the length of 
time during which it will remain under water, are regu- 
lated by it ; and hence the occurrence of a good or bad 
harvest may be predicted with certainty. The ordinary 
rise at Cairo is about 23 to 25 feet : less is insufficient, 
and more is dangerous, frequently overwhelming whole 
villages. Arise of only 18 or 20 feet means — famine; 
and a flood of the height of 30 — ruin. 

The land, thus strangely irrigated, will yield annually 
three crops ; being first sown with wheat or barley ; a 
second time, after the spring equinox, with cotton, millet, 
indigo, or some similar produce ; and, thirdly, about the 
summer solstice, with millet or maize. The river begins 
to rise about the end of June, and attains its maximum 
between the 20th and 30th of September. At this time 
the country wears a very singular aspect. On the ele- 
vated bank you stand, as it were, between two seas ; on 
one side rolls a swollen turbid flood of a blood-red hue ; 
on the other lies an expanse of seemingly stagnant water, 
extending to the desert-boundary of the valley ; the 
isolated villages, circled with groves of palm, being scat- 
tered over it like floating islands, and the gise, or dike, 
affording the sole circuitous intercommunication between 
them.* When the waters subside — a process which is 
very perceptible about the 10th of November — the valley 
is suddenly covered with a mantle of the richest green, 
and the face of the land smiles in the traveller's eyes 
with all the splendour of a new-created beauty, f 

Bearing in his memory these few facts, the reader will 

* Eliot Warburton, " The Crescent and the Cross," p. 21, et passim. 
t The minimum depth of the river at Cairo does not exceed six feet. 



THE FIRST OGDOAD OF EG YPTIAX HISTORY. 87 



come to understand the secret of the reverence with 
which the ancient Egyptian regarded the sacred river. 
The god Xilus. says Sir Gardner Wilkinson, is frequently 
represented with water-plants growing from his head, 
and binding up stalks or flowers, indicative of the inun- 
dation. In all the cities on the banks of the river certain 
priests were exclusively appointed to the service of this 
deity \ and if a corpse were found upon the sacred shore,, 
the nearest town was obliged to embalm and bury it 
with every mark of honour, though only a priest of the 
Nile could superintend the interment. 

The Nile was a member of the first Ogdoad, or rank, 
of the Egyptian divinities, and placed in direct opposi- 
tion to Phtah, or ; ' Fire," while regarded as the com- 
panion and ally of Xeith, or 4C Air," — Zeus (or Amun), 
the principle of " Life," — Demeter, the " Earth," — Xeph, 
the Spirit of the Deity — and Osiris and Isis, the " Sun " 
and " Moon." Thus it represented one of the most 
sacred essences, or primitive forces of Nature ; had its 
own hieratic emblem on the monuments ; and its special 
symbol, the tamed crocodile, typical of its power and 
yet beneficence. A festival, called Xilva, was celebrated 
at the summer solstice, when its rising waters gave the 
first promise of abundance to the thirsty land. PictoriaUy, 
it was imaged as a round plump figure, with female 
breasts and of a blue colour, in allusion to its fertilizing 
and productive powers. 

A remarkable statue of the Xiie was discovered among 
the ruins of Rome in the fifteenth century, and is now 
preserved in the Museum of the Vatican. It represents 
it surrounded by sixteen children, in allusion to the 



88 



BOA TS OF THE NILE. 



sixteen cubits at which the inundation of the river begins 
to irrigate the land ; and its base is sculptured with 
carvings of the Nile boats, the ibis, the stork, the croco- 
dile, the ichneumon, the hippopotamus, and the lotus 
in flower. 




STATUE OF THE NILE. 



The Nile boats, as pictured on the monuments, exhibit 
a great variety of size and form. There are the light 

papyrus shallop, rendered 
water-tight by bitumen ; 
the canoe hollowed out of 
a single trunk ; the square- 
rigged boat, with high bow and stern, a single mast, and 
shallow keel ; and the large capacious baris, described by 
Herodotus, which was propelled by as many as forty rowers, 
and sometimes carried a burden of three, four, and even 
five hundred tons. It was built of the hard wood of the 
sont or acacia ; its seams were caulked with oakum made 




AQUATIC FESTIVALS. 



89 



of the fibres of that plant ; and its sails were manu- 
factured of papyrus. 

The royal barges were of a far more splendid charac- 
ter, with rudder, cabin, and masts painted of a rich 
golden colour ; the sails fringed and diapered, and glow- 
ing like the rainbow ; reminding one of the gorgeous 
bark in which Cleopatra ascended the Cydnus : — 

V, " The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, 

Burned on the water : the poop was beaten gold ; 
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that 

The winds were love-sick with them ; th' oars were silver, 
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made 
The water which they beat to follow faster, 
As amorous of their strokes." * s— 

Grand religious festivals and processions were cele- 
brated on the Nile, reminding us, in some respects, of 
the water-pageants which the old Venetians celebrated 
on their " Grand Canal." A favourite pastime was to 
row rapidly in boats, and hurl at one another, as they 
swept by, blunt javelins or jereeds. At the great feast of 
Bubastis, or Pasht, it is said that as many as seven 
hundred thousand persons would assemble uponj the 
river, delighting themselves with the music of pipes and 
cymbal, and joining in loud hymns of gladness; and 
triumph. \ 

The fauna and flora of the Nile are necessarily iden- 
tical with those of the Egyptian Valley, to which we have 
already alluded ; except that to its animal life we must 
add the crocodile and hippopotamus. The former is now 
very seldom met with below 27 , or the latter further 
south than the second cataract. Fifty-two species of fish 

* Shakspeare, "Antony and Cleopatra," a. ii., s. 2. 



90 



INFLUENCE OF THE NILE. 



are described as belonging to the river : of these the 
genus Silurus is most abundant. 

The water of the Nile is exceedingly wholesome, and 
in its most turbid condition always capable of filtration. 
Between the highest and the lowest periods of the yearly 
flood it is not less remarkable for its purity than for its 
transparency. 

The word Nilus is probably of Semitic origin, and, 
like the Hebrew Sihhor y the Egyptian Chemi, and the 
Greek epithet fjueXas {melas\ may have referred to the dark 
hue of its waves. The natives called it p-iero^ or u the 
river of rivers," as if no other could claim comparison 
with it in grandeur, beauty, or fertility. 

Lastly, we may point out the powerful influence exer- 
cised by the Xile on the character and genius of Egyptian 
art. As its waters might not be polluted with dead 
bodies, the rocks of the Desert were converted into 
tombs ; and this circumstance suggested those angular 
forms peculiar, in the first place, to Egyptian architec- 
ture, but which have been adopted in every succeeding 
style. The ornaments of shaft and capital were bor- 
rowed from the river-plants ; everywhere, in tomb and 
temple, the traveller sees the graceful outline of the rose- 
coloured lotus. How important a place the great river 
occupied in the Egyptian Olympus we have already 
hinted at. Its annual overflow suggested the allegory of 
the burial of Osiris in the hallowed stream, and his 
resurrection, once a year, to scatter blessings over the 
earth. Moreover, it typified to the Egyptians the " river 
of death," across whose silent wave the dead were ferried, 
attended by the conductor of souls, the god Anubis. 



VITALITY OF EGYPTIAN IMAGERY. 



9i 



The Greeks afterwards availed themselves of this imagery, 
— which, appropriate enough in Egypt, became singularly 
inappropriate in Hellas — and converted Anubis into 
Charon, and the Nile into the gloomy Styx. How many 
of our own ideas of the other world may have been 
borrowed from the Nilotic worship of the Egyptians ! 




THE MYSTIC FERRY-BOAT. 



When we speak of the darkling stream which separates 
Time from Eternity we are employing an Egyptian image, 
and, unknown to ourselves, perhaps, referring to the 
mysterious river of a mysterious land — the great and 
glorious Nile ! 



13 o o k jgf c t o n b. 



CHAPTER I. 

ALEXANDRIA — POMPEY'S PILLAR — CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLES. 

Obelisks graven with emblems of the time. 

Tennyson. 

HE traveller's exploration of the Land of the 
Nile begins at Alexandria, the celebrated 
city and port which was founded by the 
genius of the Macedonian hero (b.c. 332), 
and which for so many centuries became the treasury of 
Oriental commerce. Its ancient opulence and prosperity 
may be inferred from the fact that its port-dues alone 
amounted in B.C. 63 to the vast sum of 6250 talents, or 
a million sterling. Its population about the same time 
was estimated at 300,000 free citizens, and at least an 
equal number of slaves and casual residents. To its 
singular beauty willing evidence is borne by the writers 
of antiquity. Much was due to its happy position and 
genial character ; but much to the skill of man, which em- 
bellished it with buildings of marble, — with palaces and 
temples and public baths, — with museums, libraries, and 




PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF ALEXANDRIA. 



93 



obelisks, — with long colonnades of the costliest marble 
yielded by the Egyptian quarries, with leafy groves and 
blooming gardens. Among the more celebrated of these 
architectural achievements I find enumerated : the Palace 
of the Ptolemys ; the Library, containing 700,000 vol- 




ANCIENT PHAROS AT ALEXANDRIA. 



umes of inestimable value ; the Museum, which num- 
bered among its professors Euclid, Callimachus, Aratus, 
Aristophanes, Aristarchus, Clemens and Origen, Theon 
and his famous daughter Hypatia, whose sad story has 
been so graphically told by Canon Kingsley; the Caesar- 



94 



THE MODERN CITY. 



eion, or Temple of the Caesars, where divine honours were 
paid to the emperors, dead and living ; the Mausoleum 
of the Ptolemys, where were interred the body of Alex- 
ander the Great, in a coffin of gold, afterwards replaced 
by one of glass, and the remains of Marcus Antonius : 
the Arsinoeum, raised by Ptolemy Philadelphus to the 
memory of his beloved sister Arsinoe : the Serapeion 
dedicated to the great god Serapis, or Osirei-Apis ; and 
the Pharos, or Lighthouse, which consisted of several 
stories, and is said to have been four hundred feet in 
height. 

Very different is the aspect of the modern Alexandria 
from that of the capital of the Ptolemys — from that of 
the city which afterwards had Cyril for its bishop, and 
witnessed the feuds of Arians and Athanasians. It is 
now a very lively, dirty, bustling, semi-European town, 
with an extensive commerce, a flourishing trade, a curious 
Babel of languages, and a motley population of some 
70,000 souls. Copts, Arabs, English, Scotch, Armenians, 
Greeks, Turks, French, Indians ; almost every nation 
under the sun, and every creed of every nation, have here 
their representatives. In truth, it is best defined as the 
meeting-point of East and West, of the old and the new 
civilizations \ but the Western element predominates, 
and the customs of the Frank are rapidly encroaching 
on those of the Oriental. There are camels and mules, — 
palms, orange-trees, and bananas, — turbaned Moslems, 
eunuchs, and the veiled inmates of the Harem ; but there 
are also dockyards and arsenals, steam-engines, steam- 
cranes, steam-boats on the river, mills, factories, a railway, 
and a score of other tangible indications that the " Old 



AN ORIENTAL SPECTACLE. 



97 



order " has changed, and is yielding to the New. It has 
lost all its ancient beauty, except its transparent atmos- 
phere and sunny sky ; and the principal object of the 
traveller who visits it is to get out of it again with all 
possible celerity. Of its magnificent edifices few me- 
morials, as we shall see, are extant ; and after cursorily 
examining these, the European invariably hastens to 
commit himself and his fortunes to the charge of the 
river Nile. The most that can be said for Alexandria, 
remarks Mr. Kennard, is, that it is an inferior conti- 
nental town; its streets peopled with Englishmen, Greeks, 
French, Italians, whose wives dress in bonnets and Paris 
mantles, and go out shopping in the afternoon in one- 
horse clarences and pony-phaetons. 

This, perhaps, is too depreciatory an estimate. Some 
of the "sights" in Alexandria are such as no European 
city can boast of ; and recall to the traveller the legends 
he has read of " the days of Haroim-al-Raschid." A 
lecent writer speaks of them as utterly strange and un- 
wonted, fairy-like, and Arabian-Xight-like.* Here came 
a file, he says, of tall camels laden with merchandise, 
stalking with deliberate, solemn step, through the bazaars; 
there rode a grand-looking native gentleman, in all the 
pride of capacious turban and flowing robes ; yonder 
passed a lady on her donkey, enveloped in black silk ha- 
burets and the more remarkable white muslin veil, — which 
universal out-of-door costume of Egyptian ladies only 
suffered two dark eyes to gleam from behind the hideous 
shroud. And if the carriages we saw, continues our 
authority, had a smack of Europe, they were driven and 

* Rev. A. C. Sm:th 3 "The Nile and its Banks," i. 20, 21. 



9$ ORIENTAL VERSUS EUROPEAN. 




ARAB WOMEN IN THE STREETS OF ALEXANDRIA. 



attended by men in Oriental dress, and — even stranger 
still — were preceded, even at their best pace, by a bare- 
legged running Arab, who shouted to the passengers to 



ANOTHER STRANGE PICTURE. 



99 



get out of the way — the shrill cries of this active avant- 
ccureur resounding on every side ; and fortunate is the 
stranger who escapes being run over in the narrow streets 
by some cantering donkey, or knocked down by some 
tall camel laden with heavy boxes, as he stands staring 
at the unwonted scene — his whole attention rivetted on 
the everyday life of an Oriental city. 

We may borrow another picture from a different 
source, to find in it the same general characteristics.* 
Take, for instance, the platform of the Alexandria 
railway-station. Here you find the same mixture of East 
and West, of old and new : a motley crowd of wily 
Greeks, dusky Arabs, and soft-featured Syrians ferments 
before you ; men, women, and children in every variety 
of costume, and no costume ; water-sellers, sweetmeat- 
sellers, bread-sellers persistently pestering everybody: 
ghostly women in white, visible as human by their flashing 
dark eyes and naked feet, flitting hither and thither in 
frantic search for a lost husband or friend. You will see 
solemn Turks and crafty-looking Jews, and, perhaps, a 
batch of recruits for the Khedive's army, — Abyssinians, 
fine brawny powerful fellows in white tunics, with bare 
black legs, chubby faces, and dark lustrous eyes. 

Yet the associations of Alexandria are well calculated 
to impress the mind of the thoughtful stranger. Its very 
name carries the imagination back over the dim gulf of 
centuries to the days when all the known world trembled 
at the nod of the Macedonian hero. It was founded by 
him, as we have said, on the site of a little town called 
Rhacotis, though not completed until the reign of the 

* Howard Hopley "X T nder Egyptian Palms," pp. 3, 4. 

t. Of C. 



IOO 



ANCIENT FAME OF THE CITY. 



second monarch of the Lagid line, Ptolemy Philadelphia.* 
By each succeeding sovereign of that dynasty it was 
enlarged and embellished, until it assumed the general 
outline of the cloak, or chlamys, common to the Mace- 
donian cavalry. That is, its ground-plan was an oblong, 
rounded at the south-east and south-west extremities. 
From east to west it measured about four miles ; from 
south to north, nearly a mile ; its circuit completed 
fifteen miles. The interior was laid out in parallelo- 
grams, the streets crossing one another at right angles, 
and two great thoroughfares, each 200 feet in breadth, 
striking across them to connect the four main gates — 
namely, the Canobic, east ; that of the Necropolis, west; 
that of the Sun, south \ and that of the Moon, north. 

A volume would barely suffice for an outline of the 
history of this once-famous city. It prospered under the 
wisdom of Ptolemy Soter and the genius of Philadelphia, 
but declined under the corrupt government of Philopater, 
who was the slave of his eunuchs, his favourite courtiers, 
and his mistresses. Enervated by vice and luxury, it 
was unable to preserve its independence ; was involved 
in the disasters and convulsions of the great struggle 
between Julius Caesar and Pompey, Mark Antony and 
Augustus ; and finally surrendered its last vestige of 
freedom at the bidding of the victor at Actium. 

Under the Emperors it became one of the principal 
granaries of Rome. At an early period after the death 
of Christ, many of its inhabitants embraced the new reli- 
gion, which flourished to such an extent that the bishopric 



* The plan, designed by the architect Deinocrates, was completed by Cleomenes 
of Naucratis. 



ARIANS AND ATHANAS1ANS. 101 



of Alexandria became one of the most important, pro- 
bably, in the whole Christian Church. It gained a 
melancholy celebrity as the scene of the sanguinary con- 
flict between Arians and Athanasians. It suffered severely 
in the still more desperate struggle between Paganism 
and Christianity, which was nowhere fought out with 
greater intellectual activity or more heroic resolution. 
The persecution ordered by the Emperor Severus claimed 
its hundreds of martyrs. Alexandria, at that time, was 
the ripe and pregnant soil of religious feud and deadly 
hatred. It was divided into three hostile factions : Jews, 
Pagans, Christians. These were continually blending and 
modifying each other's doctrines, and forming schools in 
which Judaism was transmuted into Platonism, and Pla- 
tonism into Christianity, while Christianity at various 
points acknowledged the Platonic influence. Neverthe- 
less, all three awaited the signal for persecution, and foi 
license to draw off in sanguinary legions, who might 
settle their controversies by the sword, the rope, and the 
stake.* Under Severus came the triumph of Paganism. 
Priests were burned and virgins tortured. For a while 
the professors of the new creed were compelled to bow 
their heads, and take refuge in the sandy wildernesses 
of the great deserts. 

But the Pagan world was tottering to its fall, and after 
the death of Severus, Christianity rose again from the 
dust, more vigorous than ever, and began its final wrest- 
ling with the powers of darkness. The battle was vir- 
tually decided before Constantine the Great announced 
himself a Christian ; and after that memorable event, 

* Dean Milman, " History of Christianity," ii., 157, 158. 



102 



DOWXFALL OF PAGANISM. 



Paganism covered its head, and. amid dust and ashes, 
yielded up the ghost. 

This grand conflict between the Roman Empire and 
the Christian Church lasted for upwards of four cen- 
turies ; yet at the outset the combatants were so un- 
equally matched that one might have supposed the issue 
could not be long delayed. The weapons of the Empire, 
as Mr. Kingsley observes,* were not merely an over- 
whelming physical force, and a ruthless lust of aggressive 
conquest, but, even more powerful still, an unequalled 
genius for organization, and an uniform system of external 
law and order. But against its preponderant forces the 
Church, armed only with its own mighty and all-em- 
bracing message, and with a holy spirit of purity and 
virtue, love and self-sacrifice, fought the good fight, and 
conquered. The weak things of this world confounded 
the strong. In spite of relentless persecution ; in spite of 
the contaminating atmosphere of vice which surrounded 
her ; in spite of the seeming feebleness of the recruits 
whom she gathered from the dregs of society ; in spite of 
internal dissensions on points of doctrine and ceremony; 
in spite of a thousand counterfeits which sprang up 
around her and within her, claiming to be parts of her, 
and alluring men to themselves by that very exclusiveness 
and parry arrogance which disproved their claim ; — in 
spite of all, she conquered. At last, the very Emperors 
espoused her cause. Julian's final attempt to restore the 
fallen creed of ancient Rome only sufficed to prove that 
it had lost its hold on the hearts of the masses. At his 
death the great tide-wave of new opinion rolled on un- 

* Kingsley. Preface to " Hypatia," p. viii. 



INTERESTING ASSOCIATIONS. 



checked, and bore onwards with its current the rulers of 
the earth; who, in words at least, accepted as their own 
the laws of the Church ; acknowledged the supreme 
power of the King of kings ; and even trembled before 
the priests who declared themselves His representatives 
and ministers. 

As the seat of the intellectual and moral activity which 
accomplished this grand result ; as the residence and epis- 
copal city of Clemens, Athanasius, Origen, and Cyril ; as 
the scene of the apostolic labours of the Evangelist Mark ; 
and as the place where toiled the learned Seventy, to 
whose devotion and genius the world is indebted for the 
Septuagint version of the Old Testament — no less than 
by its past imperial power, its antiquity, its monuments, 
its rising fortunes — Alexandria ought to command the 
earnest attention of the thinker. 

Towards the close of the fifth century, however, Alex- 
andria shared the common doom of the great Roman 
Empire. The shadow of decay fell upon it ; its Jewish 
and Greek merchants and money-dealers abandoned it ; 
its harbour was no longer thronged with masts ; its streets 
no longer echoed with the sounds of all languages, from 
Cadiz to the Crimea. Yet when, in 640, it was con- 
quered by Amrou and his Arabs, it still contained its 
palaces, and public baths, and theatres, and Jews who 
paid tribute, and venders of herbs.* Under the blighting 
influence of Arab rule, its decline was greatly accelerated ; 
it shrank yearly within narrower and yet narrower limits : 
its quays and its warehouses were deserted ; the glori- 
ous relics spared by its conquerors fell into irretrievable 

* Eutychius, " Annales," vol. ii., p. 316, cited bv Gibbon. 
295, g 



THE FUTURE AND THE PAST 



desolation. The final death-blow to its fortunes was the 
discovery, in 1497, of the passage round the Cape of 
Good Hope, which changed the direction of the com- 
merce of the East ; and it is only within recent years that 
it has again lifted up its head, owing to a second change 
in the current of Oriental traffic produced by the estab- 
lishment of the Overland Route. It is now a busy and 
a prosperous city ; one of the great connecting links be- 
tween the East and the West ; one of the principal posts 
or landmarks on the grand highway from England to 
Calcutta. And with the Suez Canal practicable for large 
vessels, it must become of further importance, notwith- 
standing the rivalry of Port Said. Nay, it is even possible 
that the splendour of its future may outshine the glory 
of its past. 

Its ruins are, unfortunately, to a great extent mere 
shapeless masses of masonry, of shattered columns and 
capitals, to which the most vivid fancy, informed by the 
most profound erudition, cannot give " a local habitation 
and a name." Vestiges of baths and buildings, and por- 
tions of ancient cisterns, and fragments of pottery and 
glass, may indeed be traced ; but the only remains which 
can be said to possess a real interest are Pompey's Pillar 
and the Obelisks. 

Pompey's Pillar, as it is absurdly misnamed, — the 
Amood e sowari of the Arabs, — is a monolithic column 
of red granite, situated on a solitary mound which over- 
looks the Lake Mareotis and the modern city. Its fluted 
Corinthian shaft measures 73 feet in height; the total 
height, including the capital and base, is 98 feet 9 inches ; 
the circumference, 29 feet 8 inches. It should properly 



POMPE Y'S PILLAR. 105 

be designated Diocletian's Pillar, having been erected, as 
the inscription on its base records, by Publius [quaere, 
Pompeius ?], the Eparch of Egypt, to commemorate the 
siege and capture of Alexandria in a.d. 297, when it had 
declared in favour of the usurper Achilleus, by the Em- 




pompey's pillar. 



peror Diocletian. The shaft, capital, and pedestal are 
apparently of different ages, the capital and pedestal 
being of later and inferior workmanship than the shaft. 

According to the Arab historian, Abdallatif, cited by 
Mr. Lane, it is the sole existing relic of the famous 



io6 



A DREARY LAXDSCAEE. 



Serapeion — the gorgeous temple destroyed through the 
bigot zeal and iconoclastic enthusiasm of the Archbishop 
Theophilus. The four hundred columns which had embel- 
lished and enclosed the magnificent structure were ruth- 
lessly overthrown, and piled up as a break-water on the 
sea-shore ; all save the one stately pillar, the loftiest of 
the four hundred — the " pillar of the colonnades." as the 
Arabs emphatically term it — which is now the cynosure 
of European pilgrims. 

Its present site is a scene of desolation, far different 
from the glowing picture which surrounded it of old, 
when the Xile was thronged with gilded barges, and the 
waters of the Mediterranean were gay with Phoenician 
argosies, and the light of the Pharos was the guiding star 
of the world's commerce. To reach it you must pass, as 
Miss Martineau reminds us.* through the dreariest of 
cemeteries, where all is of one dust-colour, even to the 
aloe fixed upon every grave. And the view from the 
base is very curious. Groups of Arabs labour in the hot. 
white, crumbling soil, with soldiers watching over them. 
To the south-east spreads Lake Mareotis, whose slender 
line of shore seems liable to be broken through by the 
first ripple of its waves. A strip of vegetation — marsh, 
field, and grove — somewhat relieves the dreary landscape : 
and the eye rests with pleasure on a lateen sail occasion- 
ally eliding anions: the trees. 

At the eastern extremity of Alexandria — that is. in a 
directly opposite direction to Diocletian's Pillar, and for- 
merly in the vicinity of the Palace, the Museum, the 
Library, the Market, and the Docks, all of which have 

* Miss Martineau. "Eastern Life." i. 13, 14. 



TEMPLE OF CAESAR. 



107 



perished — stood the Sebaste Caesareum, or Temple of 
Caesar, whose site is now marked by two obelisks of red 
granite, one erect, the other prostrate on the sand.* 





cleopatka's needles. 



These are the so-called Cleopatra's Neediest though in 
no wise connected with that " serpent of old Xile " whose 

* Madox.. " Excursions in Egypt, the Holy Land, &c.," i. 09. 

t Mes'eZleh, " a needle," is the Arabic word usually applied to an obelisk. 
Many of the great works of Alexandria are ascribed by the Arabs to Cleopatra, 
who holds in their memory much the same place as Cromwell in that of the Eng. 
lish peasants, or Wallace among the Scotch. 



io8 THE SO-CALLED CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE. 



fatal beauty enchanted the Roman triumvir, and cost 
him the sovereignty of the world. Long before the 
dynasty of which she was the last representative reigned 
over Egypt, they were raised at Heliopolis — the centre 
of Egyptian art and science — by Thothmes III. They 
date, therefore, fully twelve centuries before the Christian 
era. Their removal to Alexandria was effected by Julius 
Caesar, to adorn his temple. 

The obelisk that is still standing is 73 feet high. That 
which lies among the sand-heaps was presented to the 
British Government, in 1820. by Mehemet Ali; but con- 
siderations of expense have hitherto prevented its removal 
to England, though the subject was agitated in 1869. 

Erected, as its hieroglyphical inscription records, in 
honour of Thothmes III., the interest of the vertical obe- 
lisk centres apparently in its fictitious connection with 
the dusky Queen of Egypt. The traveller who gazes 
upon its tapering spire cannot but have his imagination 
touched by the name associated with it. He recalls 
her strange wild history, so full of pathos in itself, and so 
exalted in poetical force by the genius of Shakspeare. 
He remembers the subtle spell of her loveliness ; the 
" chance and change'' of her romantic, semi-barbaric 
career : the pride of her luxurious splendour, when she 
charmed " great Caesar's soul" : and the deep shadow 
that gathered about her tragical end : — 

' I died a queen. The Roman soldier found 
Me lying dead, my crown about my brows, 
A name for ever ! — lying robed and crowned, 
Worthy a Roman spouse."* 



* Tennyson, " Poems : A Dream of Fair Women." 



TAKING LEA VE OF ALEXANDRIA. 



109 



The other memorials of ancient Alexandria are of 
comparatively little interest, consisting of numerous tanks 
for supplying the city with Nile water ; vestiges of baths 
and mansions ; fragments of pottery and glass ; and 
shattered capitals and columns. The Catacombs, or 
remains of the old Necropolis, which lie beyond the 
western gate, are remarkable for their extent. 

It only remains to add that the modern Alexandria 
does not exactly occupy the site of the ancient city, but 
stands on the mole called the Heptastadium, formerly 
connecting the island of Pharos with the mainland. Suc- 
cessive alluvial deposits have widened and enlarged this 
mole into a broad neck of land between the two har- 
bours, of which the eastern is called the New, and the 
western the Old Port. 



CHAPTER II. 



CAIRO : ITS MOSQUES — THE CITADEL — THE PYRAMIDS — 
THE SPHINX HELIOPOLIS, AND ITS OBELISKS. 



away to westward, like a Venetian lagoon ; yet unlike a 
Venetian lagoon, in its flocks of pelicans, which ever and 
anon rise in the air like dense clouds of dazzling snow. 

The landscape, as we speed along, is somewhat mon- 
otonous, or would be, if not occasionally relieved by 
strange glimpses of Oriental life : of boys selling sugar- 
canes ; of women pacing slowly along, with water-vessels 
gracefully poised upon the shoulder ; of mud-villages, the 
homes of wretched fellahs ; and long strings of loaded 
camels, carrying cotton or corn to Alexandria. Long be- 
fore we reach Cairo, however, we become sensible, so to 
speak, of the Desert, — the wild, dreamy, mysterious 
Desert, — with its intense tranquillity, its awful silence, its 



The sphinx, 
Staring right on with calm eternal eyes. 



Alexander Smith. 




CROSS the broad expanse of the Delta the 
traveller is now borne by the " iron horse'' 
towards the Egyptian capital. At first he 
skirts the shores of Lake Mareotis, stretching 



THE GREAT A L- CAIRO. 



1 1 1 



gorgeous atmospheric effects, and wonderful flushes of 
colour. 

Soon after crossing the Nile at Old Cairo, or Boulak, 
we come in sight of the Pyramids, rearing their triangular 
heads above the flat alluvial plain in the distance, clear 
and vivid, with " sharp blue shadows," standing out in 
majestic outline against the soft and glowing sky. Seen 
thus, they apparently belong to the mysterious days of 
Anakim and giants ; to the age of fable, and legend, and 
strange romance, when — ■ 

ec All the powers of nameless worlds, 
Vast sceptred phantoms, heroes, men, and beasts," 

inspired the imagination of the seer and the poet. One 
may well be forgiven for associating with them the most 
fantastic dreams ! 

Cairo itself, backed by its white citadel and the yellow 
range of the Mokuttam hills ; the " great A\ Cairo," as 
Milton calls it ; the city of Saladin and the Arabian 
Nights — is an ever-changing panorama of life and inter- 
est. It preserves a true Oriental air, and, as you examine 
its bazaars and ramble through its streets, you seem 
carried back, in body and spirit, to the days of Haroun 
Al-Raschid. Its streets are so narrow as scarcely to 
admit of two camels passing abreast ; its bazaars glow 
with the richest productions of the looms of the East; 
its mosques and minarets are apparently innumerable ; 
and its fountains fill the air with an enduring freshness. 
The richly -carpeted shops are enclosed in front by 
a divan, and in the midst sits a venerable Turk or a 
wealthy Arab, smoking a splendid narghileh of gold and 
silver, and surveying with complacent gaze his costly 



112 ORIENTAL CHARACTER OF THE CITY. 



wares : jewellery from Paris, chibouques from Constanti- 
nople, tobacco from Latakia, dainty muslins from India, 
keen bright swords of " Damascene steel," and rustling 
silks from the land of tne Celestials. Meanwhile, the 
ways are thronged in every part, and it is with difficulty 
the pedestrian escapes a rude jostle from the donkeys, 
which pass him every moment, laden with sand, and 
flour, and water ; or with a happier burden, in the per- 
son of some beauty of the harem, closely veiled, and 
attended by watchful guards. Then comes the water- 
carrier, calling shrilly, " Moira, moira ! " or a stately Turk 
making his way to his favourite baths \ or some tawny 
East Indian hero, returning to England, stalks imperturb- 
ably through the excited crowd ; or one of the Pasha's 
guards dashes by, mounted on a richly caparisoned 
steed. 

The visitor to Cairo is at first bewildered by the novel 
scenes which crowd upon him, and some time elapses 
before he is able to disentangle his confused impressions, 
and realize each feature of the marvellous picture. After 
awhile he begins to understand that he is, at length, in 
a purely Oriental city — the Musr el Kaherah, or the 
" victorious capital " of the Arabs — and to combine, in 
an orderly manner, his recollections of its past history 
with his knowledge of its present condition. Then he 
comes to the conclusion that its peculiarities, whether 
architectural or social, must be examined seriatim, and 
he leisurely examines its buildings, and curiously investi- 
gates its customs. Afterwards he puts together his notes 
in some such fashion, perhaps, as the following : — 

Cairo is situated in lat. 30 2' N., and long. 31 16' E VI 



CITADEL OF CAIRO. 



on a sandy level between the right bank of the Nile and 
the range of the Mokuttam Hills. It was founded, east- 
ward of Old Cairo, by Touloun, a Moslem governor of 
Egypt, in a. d. 868 ; but removed still further eastward — 
that is, to its present site — by the Fatimite khalif, El 
Moez, in a.d. 923. It remained the capital of the Fati- 
mite rulers until 1171, when the famous Saladin — the 
" Bayard " of the East — usurped the throne. In 1220 it 
was unsuccessfully besieged by the Crusaders. In 1250, 
Moosa-el-Ashref was deposed by the Mamelukes, who 
retained possession of the city until 1517, when it was 
stormed and captured by Sultan Selim. Though it has 
lost much of its original importance, it is still a thriving 
and prosperous city, with a population (mostly Moham- 
medan) of 250,000 1 and may be considered as the great 
centre of the learning of the Eastern world, its celebrated 
university being presided over by men of acknowledged 
erudition, and annually attended by some two thousand 
students. 

Its remarkable edifices are its citadel, its minarets, and 
its mosques. The citadel, as already stated, dominates 
over the whole town from its elevated position on a bold 
ridge of sandstone. Its walls — within which the massacre 
of the Mamelukes took place, and whose battlements 
were crowned by Napoleon's victorious standards — are 
of great solidity, and, in some places, one hundred feet 
in height. The works were enlarged and strengthened 
by Mehemet Ali, who resided here during the greater 
part of his reign. The prospect it commands is of a 
very extensive and impressive character ; including not 
only the carved domes and fantastic minarets of Cairo, 



H4 AN EXTENSIVE VIEW. 




TOMBS OF THE KHALIFS, AND CITADEL OF CAIRO. 



but the sequestered valley with its tombs of the Mame- 
luke sultans ; the rich deep verdure of the distant Delta : 
the sharp clear outlines of the mysterious Pyramids ; the 
yellow frontier-belt of the Desert ; the sweet meanders 
of the tranquil Nile ; and everywhere a soil that has been 
swept by successive waves of revolution, from the days 




MOSQUE OF THE SULTAN HASSAN AT CAIRO. 



THE C A IRENE MINARETS. 117 




MUEZZIN ANNOUNCING THE HOUR OF PRAYER. 



of Menes and Rameses to those of Napoleon, Sir Sidney 
Smith, Abercromby, and Nelson ; a soil that it is no 
exaggeration to say seems haunted by 

" The shape and shadow of mystic things." 

The Cairene minarets are justly eulogized by travellers 
as the most beautiful of any in the East ; exquisite crea- 



1 18 MOSQUES OF CAIRO. 

tions of the strange dreamy Arabian genius; towering to 
an extraordinary height, built of courses of red and white 
stone, and ornamented with balconies, from which the 
muezzins announce the hour of prayer. Of these, the 
most ancient adjoins the great mosque of the Sultan 
Touloun, or Tuyloun, built in a.d. 879, soon after the 
foundation of the city. Two others belong to the magni- 
ficent mosque of the Sultan Hassan, which is situated in 
the palace of the Roumayli, near the citadel, and was 
completed about a.d. 1362. 

The general character of the mosques is admirably 
sketched by Lady Duff Gordon.* She describes that of 
the Sultan Touloun as exquisite, noble, and simple ; what 
ornament there is, the most delicate lacework and em- 
bossing in stone and wood. This Arab architecture, as she 
observes, is even more lovely than our Gothic. The 
mosque of the citadel is like a fine modern Italian 
church ; but Abbas Pasha stole the alabaster columns, 
and replaced them by painted wood. The mosque of 
Sultan Hassan is a singularly majestic building, and the 
beauty of the details quite beyond belief to European 
eyes ; the huge gates to his tomb are one mass of the 
finest enamel ornaments. 

It is to be regretted, however, that these " fairy edi- 
fices " are so shamefully and grievously neglected. 

Let us now venture into the streets of Cairo ; if we 
keep our eyes open, we shall be amused by the various 
scenes they present. One of them is the " zikr," or per- 
formance — if we may use the expression — of the dancing 
or whirling Dervishes. It takes place within a railed 

* Lady Duff Gordon., " Letters from Egypt " (1863-65), pp. 17-21. 



A CURIOUS SCENE. 119 




A STREET IN CAIRO. 

enclosure, like the arena of an equestrian display; the 
space around, and the galleries above, being open to 

(295) 9 



120 



DANCING DERVISHES. 



spectators, Europeans as well as Orientals. At the 
further end of the arena is seated the sheikh of the 
Dervishes, dressed in dark green robes, edged with fur, 
and with a tall, brimless, conical hat upon his head. 
Then enter some score or so of men and lads, of various 
ages, from gray-bearded manhood to smooth-chinned 
childhood, all dressed in flowing garments of lively 
colours, and in quaint brown felt caps, which resemble 
nothing in the world so much as our English flower-pots. 
A chapter of the Koran having been read, they circle 
round the enclosure in dignified order, making low obei- 
sances to the sheikh. The whirling then begins, to the 

accompaniment of a drum 
and two fifes. One by one, 
and with astonishing gra- 
vity, each individual ro- 
tates — his arms held out 
horizontally, with the palm 
of one hand and the back 
of another uppermost — 
his eyes bent down, and 
nearly closed — his heels 
kept close together — and 
the whirling motion per- 
formed not on the toes, 
but on the soles of the feet. By degrees the rotation 
grows more rapid, until the whole company are spinning 
round and round, like so many animated balloons, with 
their arms extended, and their sweeping garments raising 
quite a current of air ; no individual, however, touching or 
in anv way incommoding his neighbours. Those in the 




DONKEYS AND THEIR DRIVERS. 123 



centre keep nearly the same spot — at least, to the care- 
less eye they appear not to move \ but if closely watched 
it may be seen that they too, though with great dexterity, 
and with a subtle gliding movement, accomplish the cir- 
cuit of the ring. 

With two brief intervals of three to five minutes each 
this extraordinary performance, which makes the spec- 
tator dizzy to look upon it, lasts for a full half hour — the 
drum and fifes, meanwhile, maintaining their harsh, dis- 
cordant, ear-splitting sound. At the conclusion, another 
Dervish repeats a chapter from the Koran, and the sheikh 
goes through some ceremony apparently analogous to a 
benediction \ after which the whirling wonders retire, and 
the spectator, with a giddy brain and aching eyes, gladly 
seeks the open air.* 

Quite an institution in Cairo are the donkeys and their 
drivers. But you must not suppose that the Cairene ass 
is as patient, depressed, and dismal-looking a quadruped 
as his European congener. He has a smattering of pride 
about him, pricks up his ears with an air of intelligence, 
indulges in impetuous fits, but is also given to prolonged 
" pauses of meditation." In mere personal appearance, 
as Mr. Hopley remarks,t he is more of " a swell " than 
his northern brother. His owner shaves him upon the 
back like a poodle dog. He carries a high and humpy 
saddle, covered with scarlet leather and tinsel trappings ; 
so that, on the whole, he can sniff up the wind proudly 
beside the statelier camel, or run unabashed in presence 
of his high-born kinsman, the horse. But even a Cairene 

* Rev. A. C. Smith, " The Nile and its Banks," i. 65, 66. 
t Howard Hopley, " Under Egyptian Palms," p. 41. 



I2 4 



A GENUINE HAREM. 



donkey is not without his failing ; he is not " the perfect 
monster which the world ne'er saw." He will lie down 
at inconvenient times, kick up his heels, and grovel in 
the dust. And this is the more strange, since he appears 
thoroughly aware of the folly of such an escapade. He 
invariably rises with a guilty look, perfectly conscious 
that he is about to receive a beating ; and yet the temp- 
tation to do evil is always irresistible. 

Not less original than the animal is the animal's owner. 
Now in Cairo every little proprietor keeps a donkey, 
which is as much a sign of respectability in the East as 
" payment of rates and taxes" in the West The pro- 
prietor is not always the driver ; but whether he owns 
the beast or not, the driver is as fond of him as the 
Bedouin of his camel ; runs beside him, stimulates him 
with kind words, and takes care he is comfortably fed 
and housed. His own dress is light and airy ; a scarlet 
tarboosh or white turban of few folds for the head, a 
blue cotton tunic reaching barely to the knees, and a 
long scarf for the waist. He is as eager for a customer 
as any London cabman • and your appearance on the 
steps of your hotel is the signal for a general rush to- 
wards you of donkey-drivers and donkeys. 

Of course, for the European visitor, one of the " lions " 
of Cairo is a real Oriental harem ; but it is not every 
stranger who can obtain admission to one, and when 
that admission is obtained, the impression produced is 
generally painful. These luxurious dark-skinned beauties, 
gorgeously apparelled, reclining on their soft, billowy 
divan, like so many dusky Venuses, and laboriously 
whiling away the hours with the scented narghilehs — with 



EXPEDITION 



TO THE PYRAMIDS. 



127 



occasional songs and dances — with a daily promenade 
through the streets and bazaars ; — what thoughts can 
they suggest to the thoughtful spectator, except that so 
lethargic a life must stimulate the passions at the expense 
of the intellect, and that until the relations of the two 
sexes are wholly altered, the civilization of the East can 
never attain its due development \ 

As soon as the European has become familiar with 
the " thousand and one " curiosities of Cairo, he deter- 
mines on an expedition to the Pyramids, which lie about 
twelve miles distant from the city, and six or seven miles 
from the bank of the Nile. 

These " memorials of the world's youth " are the prin- 
cipal objects in a singular landscape, which, checkered 
by such features as the great winding river ; the purple 
city, with its forts, domes, and spires ; the green fields, 
and palm groves, and speckled villages ; the plains either 
covered with verdure, or glistening with shining inunda- 
tions, — stretches far, far away, until it is lost and mingled 
in the golden horizon.* 

Despite of all that has been written about them, despite 
of the innumerable sketches which crowd our albums, the 
Pyramids are ever attractive, ever fresh, and ever new. 
From our very boyhood they work upon our imagination 
with a subtle charm. I know that for my own part they 
have often haunted my dreams, and that in silent moments 
their image frequently rises upon the brain unbidden. 
Like the spells of the old necromancers, they invoke a 
host of spectres from the shadowy graves of the Past. 
They are probably more familiar to us, by book and 

* Thackeray. " From CornhiU to Cairo" 'edit. 1869 \ p. 510. 



128 



A CROWD OF ASSOCIATIONS. 



picture, than half the architectural monuments of our 
own land. Their mighty masses seem to convey to us 
from afar a singular impression of awe, majesty, and 
strength ; and with them we insensibly associate I know 
not what ideas of august mystery and wonder. They 
belong to the earliest ages of the human race — to days 
before History began— when the "world's gray forefathers" 




— to use Vaughan's fine expression — roamed at will over 
the boundless pastures, and the angels had hardly ceased 
to visit the " daughters of men." Abraham may have 
gazed upon their giant forms, Joseph have reposed in 
their shadow. Generations have come and gone; dynas- 
ties have risen like stars, and, like stars, have sunk below 
the horizon ; the arts and sciences of Egypt have trans- 



PURPOSES OF THE PYRAMIDS. 129 

ferred their glories to Western empires \ but still, on the 
edge of the broad and dreary Desert, and still, looking 
out upon the " blown valley " of the Nile, are securely 
seated these giants of the Unknown Time, as if to mock 
the men, and things, and littlenesses of To-day ! 

P Who built them % What purpose were they intended 
to serve % The first question, through the researches of 
Champollion, Vyse, and Lepsius, we can answer with 
tolerable accuracy ; to the second, no fully satisfactory 
reply has yet been given. We are told they were the 
granaries erected by Joseph \ temples of Venus ; ancient 
observatories ; reservoirs for purifying the Nile waters ; 
mausolea of the Egyptian kings ; while Professor Piazzi 
Smyth has recently attempted to prove that the Great 
Pyramid was erected to preserve certain standard mea- 
sures of capacity and dimension.* After reading all the 
ingenious arguments the Scotch astronomer puts forward 
in support of his hypothesis, I still believe the more 
reasonable conclusion is that which General Howard 
Vyse arrived at ; — that they are the tombs of Egyptian 
monarchswho flourished from the 4th to the 12th dynasty ;t 
solid mounds raised over sepulchral chambers, like the 

^cromlechs of the Celtic tribes. Now, Death-in-Life was 
the great principle of the religion of the Egyptians. All 
life was spent in a steadfast and methodical preparation 
for death. The unseen world was their daily thought ; 
the visible world of no regard, except as the porch or 
vestibule of the Temple of Eternity. Every man, if his 



* Prof. Piazzi Smyth, " Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," passim. 
+ The etymology of the word "Pyramid" is uncertain, but there can be little 
doubt it means a tomb or sepulchre. 



13° 



A ROYAL MAUSOLEUM, 



need was not too great, began the preparation of his 
tomb even in his early youth. He looked forward 
eagerly to joining the " great congregation " of those who 
had gone before. And this was especially the case with 
the Egyptian kings. Each one of them lived solitary; 
and it was only when he died that he would enter among 
his peers. He went from the solitude of the busy, 
peopled Egypt ; to the sanctified society of the Valley of 
Death. To him, as Miss Martineau remarks, this was 
the great event, to which he was looking forward during 
the best years of his life ; and he devoted his wealth, his 
thoughts, and the most sacred desires of his heart, to 
preparation for his promotion to the society of kings, and 
the presence of the gods. There, an abode would be 
prepared for him. On the walls of his tomb he attempted 
to paint the succession of mansions in the great heavenly 
house which he was to inhabit at last : but, meanwhile, 
he was to dwell, for a vast length of time, in the long 
home in the valley, with his peers (whether asleep or 
vigilant) all round about him.* 

Thus, then, as soon as a king began to reign, he began 
the erection of his mausoleum. Gangs of labourers were 
brought together from all parts of the empire : in those 
days labour was cheap, and a royal command irresistible. 
A shaft of the size of the intended sarcophagus having 
been first excavated in the rock, at such an incline as 
permitted the sarcophagus to be readily lowered, then, 
at a suitable depth, a cell or chamber was hollowed out 
for its reception. Over this chamber was built up the 
pyramidal mass of masonry, of square blocks,— the mouth 

* Harriet Martineau, " Eastern Life,'' i. 325-327. 



LABOUR IX THE LOXG AGES. 



of the shaft being left open. As long as the sovereign 
lived, this pyramid was increased in height and bread th, 
and, at his death, 
completed by fac- 
ing or smoothing its 













a 










a 








a ..^ 






a VM 





a, Original masonry, b, Additional work of 
exterior. 



exterior. The latter 
operation was per- 
formed in a very sim- 
ple manner : courses 
of long blocks were 
added to each step or gradation of the mass, and the 
whole cut down to an uniform surface, beginning from 
the apex.* 

It was long a matter of wonder how such immense 
masses of masonry had been elevated to their respective 
places, but the discovery of large circular apertures in 
many of the stones, seems to show that the Egyptians 
were assisted by some kind of machinery. Not the less 
must our admiration be freely given to the artisans who 




ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MODE OF CONVEYING STONES. 

accomplished so much with means and appliances ap- 
parently of the simplest order. How great must have been 
the ingenuity — how supreme the perseverance — how vast 

* Sir Gardner Wilkinson, ''Modem Egypt and Thebes," passim. 



132 



THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



the toil ! Alas, for the hewers of wood and drawers of 
water, who were dragged from their far-off homes to perish, 
perhaps, under the incessant labour ! Where did they 
sleep the last sleep, I wonder? What sepulchre enshrined 
their dust % Not for them the mighty pyramid and the 
historic memory : their meed was forgetfulness. 

The stones made use of were either brought from the 
granite quarries of Syene, or, more frequently, quarried on 
the spot. The entrances were filled up with anxious care, 
and ingress to the last resting-place of the king prevented 
by barriers of solid stone, 
r Egypt contains seventy Pyramids, all between 29°and 
30 north latitude, the most remarkable being situated 
either at Memphis or in the neighbourhood of Cairo, 
and all on the west bank of the Nile. Their sides face 
the cardinal points, and their entrances are on the north. 
The three largest, or those of Ghizeh, are the best known 
and most celebrated. 

The first, or Great Pyramid, was mainly erected by 
" Cheops," who flourished, according to different chronolo- 
gists, about 3229, 3095, or 2123 B.C., and was theChenebes 
or Chemmis of Diodorus, and the Shufu of Manetho. Its 
height was 480 feet 9 inches, and its base 764 feet square ; 
that is, it occupied an area equal in extent to Lincoln's 
Inn Fields, or about 543,696 square feet, with a mass of 
^building higher than St. Paul's Cathedral. Its slope or 
angle was 51° 50', but its external effect has been much 
injured by the spoliation of the exterior blocks for the 
erection of Cairo. The entrance is about 40 feet from 
the ground, and 4 feet high. The passage is on a con- 
siderable incline, 320 feet in length, and conducts to the 



ITS INTERIOR. 133 

mortuary chamber, excavated out of the solid rock, and 
measuring 46 feet by 27 feet, and 14 feet 6 inches in 
height. At the distance of 106 feet from the entrance 
it is closed by a block of granite, and an upper pas- 
sage proceeds from this point at an angle of 27 .* Climb- 
ing by a few steps into the second passage, you ascend 
to the entrance of the Great Gallery, from whence a 




SECTION OF GREAT PYRAMID OF GHIZEH. 



horizontal passage leads into what is called the Queen's 
Chamber, which has a triangular roof, 20 feet 3 inches 
high, and is 17 feet in length by 18 feet 9 inches in 
breadth. There is a niche in the east end, where the 
Arabs have broken the masonry in search of treasure ; 

* General Howard Vyse, " Observations on the Pyramids of Ghizeh " (London, 
1840-43). 



134 



THE KING'S CHAMBER. 



and Sir Gardner Wilkinson is of opinion that if the pit 
where the king's body was deposited exists in any of these 
rooms, it should be looked for beneath this niche, which 
is nearly in the centre of the Pyramid. 

Returning to the Great Gallery, we come, at its base, 
to the mouth of what is called the Well — a narrow 
funnel-shaped shaft leading down to the subterranean 
chamber. As it is useless to descend thither, we continue 
our course along the gallery for 158 feet, arriving at a 
horizontal passage where four granite portcullises, de- 
scending through grooves, once arrested the steps of the 
intruder and guarded the repose of the dead. These 
obstacles, however, have been overcome, and you are 
now enabled to enter the principal chamber in the 
Pyramid — the King's Chamber — constructed entirely of 
red granite, and containing a sarcophagus of the same 
material, 7 feet 6J inches long, 3 feet 3 inches broad, 
and 3 feet 5 inches high. We have called it a " sar- 
cophagus," but later authorities are not in accord as to 
its uses, and Prof. Piazzi Smyth asserts that it was 
jealously preserved as a standard measure of capacity, 
of which the British quarter is the fourth part. The 
reasons, however, which the Scotch astronomer advances 
in support of his opinion can hardly be described as 
more than plausible. 

The King's Chamber measures 17 feet 1 inch by 34 
feet 3 inches, and 19 feet 1 inch in height* It is venti- 
lated by two small air-channels, or flues, about 9 inches 
square, which ascend to the north and south sides of the 
Pyramid ; and its walls and roof are lined with superb 

* J. Fergusson, "History of Architecture," i. 38. 



THE SECOND PYRAMID. 



135 



slabs of syenite. Above it, and accessible only by a 
narrow passage, is a small chamber, discovered by Mr. 
Davidson, 3 feet 6 inches high ; and above 
this, four other similar niches or chambers 
were explored by General Vyse. In one of 
these he found the cartouche containing the 
name of the founder Shufu, or Cheops, worked 
in red paint. 

Shufu, and his brother Nura -Shufu (or Sensuphis) 
reigned for some years conjointly, and conjointly erected 
the Great Pyramid. Their reigns extended over sixty- 
six years. During this long period, upwards of 100,000 
men, relieved every three months, were employed upon 
the mighty work.* 

The second Pyramid, generally attributed, though on no 
hieroglyphical authority, to Chephren (perhaps Sha-fre, 
or Sephres, of the 5th dynasty), is of later date, and of 
ruder construction than that of Cheops. It stands on 
higher ground, and consequently has an appearance of 
greater height. Its actual elevation, however, is only 
454 feet; the square of its base 707 feet. It is dis- 
tinguished by retaining a portion of that outer and 
smoother casing which all the pyramids once possessed. 
In its interior arrangements it differs from the Great 
Pyramid, the sarcophagus of the founder being sunk in 
the floor. It appears to have been broken into by the 
Khalif Alaziz Othman Een-Yousouf, 1196 a.d., but the 
honour of throwing it open to modern exploration is 
duetto the enterprise of Belzoni. 

The account which that intrepid and sagacious tra- 

* Herodotus, bk. ii. 123, 124. 
(295) 10 




136 



BELZOXFS EXPLORATION. 



veller furnishes of his explorations, may even now be 
perused with interest by the reader. Having discovered 
an entrance, he caused his hired troop of Arabs to clear 
away the rubbish about it, and cut through the massive 
stones of the Pyramid, until admission was obtained 
into the shaft or passage already described. Further 
labour conducted him to a portcullis, a fixed block of 
granite, which seemed to render impossible his progress 
into the interior. It stared him in the face as a ne plus 
ultra, putting an end to all his projects. But enthusiasm 
never believes in the impracticable. A closer inspection 
of the stone revealed that at the bottom it was raised 
about eight inches from the ground, while at the top a 
groove had been opened in the wall to admit of its 
elevation when required. With great toil it was lifted 
up into this recess, and a tunnel excavated high enough 
for a man to pass underneath. Belzoni, with a thrill of 
triumph, pressed forward, and, after thirty days of won- 
derful perseverance, was rewarded by finding himself in 
the road to the central chamber of the second Pyramid. 

As it was his desire to reach the centre, he continued 
his advance along a corridor excavated in the solid rock, 
6 feet in height, and 6 feet 6 inches broad. He then 
arrived at a large chamber, and paused to collect his 
scattered thoughts. Where was he ] What was the 
object of the cell or apartment in which he found him- 
self? " Whatever it might be," he says, " I certainly con- 
sidered myself in the centre of that Pyramid which, from 
time immemorial, had been the subject of the obscure 
conjectures of many hundred travellers, both ancient and 
modern. My torch, formed of a few wax candles, gave 



IMP OR TAN T DISCO VERIES. 1 39 

but a faint light ; I could, however, clearly distinguish 
the principal objects. I naturally turned my eyes to the 
west end of the chamber, looking for the sarcophagus, 
which I strongly expected to see in the same situation 
as that in the first Pyramid ; but I was disappointed 
when I saw nothing there. The chamber, he continues, 
has a pointed or sloping ceiling, and many of the stones 
had been removed from their places, evidently by some 
one in search of treasure. On my advancing towards 
the west end, I was agreeably surprised to find that 
there was a sarcophagus buried on a level with the 
floor." 

This sarcophagus is 8 feet long, 3 feet 6 inches wide, 
and 3 feet 2 inches deep in the inside. It is manu- 
factured of the finest granite, but does not exhibit a 
single hieroglyph. The fragments of bone found in the 
interior belonged to an animal of the bovine species, 
and have been generally supposed to be the remains of 
the sacred bull — the type of the god Apis — so highly 
venerated by the Egyptians. The chamber is 46 feet in 
length, 16 feet 3 inches in width, and 23 feet 6 inches in 
height. 

- Such were the most important discoveries which re- 
warded Belzoni's energy. He also found a well or shaft, 
as in the Pyramid of Cheops, and from thence a passage 
running towards the north at an angle of 2 6°. It con- 
tinued in this direction for 48J feet, and then opened 
upon a horizontal passage 35 feet long. Off this gallery 
turns an avenue or corridor 22 feet long, with a descent 
of 26 towards the west, which leads into a chamber 
with a pointed roof, 32 feet long, 9 feet 9 inches wide, 



140 



THE THIRD PYRAMID. 



and 8 feet 6 inches high.* Chephren, according to 
Manetho, reigned sixty-six years. 

The third Pyramid, smaller than the others, but ad- 
mirably constructed, was built by Men-ka-re or Mycerinus, 
who reigned sixty-three years. It is only 218 feet high, 
by 354 feet 6 inches square. It has two sepulchral 
chambers, excavated out of the solid rock. The lower, 
modelled after a palace, has a pointed roof, cut like an 
arch inside. It contained the sarcophagus of Mycerinus, 
— a curious work of art, also modelled in imitation of a 
palace ; but its cedar coffin, and the mummy belonging 
to it, had been removed to the upper apartment by some 
unknown spoliator. The debris of the coffin, and the 
remains of the mummy, were afterwards conveyed to 
England, where, in the British Museum, they now at- 
tract the attention of thousands. The stone sarcopha- 
gus was unfortunately lost off Carthagena, in the wreck 
of the vessel on board of which it had been em- 
barked. 

It seems desirable to add that six other pyramids of 
inferior dimensions are situated at Ghizeh ; one at Abou- 
Ruweysh, five miles north-west, in a ruined condition, 
built by Venephes, of the first dynasty; another* decayed 
memorial, built of limestone, stands at Zowyet-el-Arrian ; 
and another, supposed to have been built by King User- 
en-Ra, or Busiris, at Rugar. There are three pyramids 
at Abou-Seir, one connected with King Shura, and another 
with a monarch of the third dynasty. Eleven are extant 
at Sakkara ; five at Dashour — the northernmost of which 
is believed to have been erected by the King Asychis of 

* Belzoni, " Researches and Operations in Egypt and Nubia," i. 410. et seq. 



LEGENDS OF THE PYRAMIDS. 141 

Herodotus/' Others are at Biahmo, at Meydoon, and 
at Illahoon, and some small ones of brick, belonging to 
kings of the eleventh dynasty, at the Drah Aboo Negger, 
near Thebes. Wherever found, it has been ascertained 
that none were erected later than the era of the twelfth 
dynasty, and almost all of them may be described as 
forming a part of the great Royal Necropolis of Memphis. 

All things dread Time, says the proverb, but Time 
dreads the Pyramids.^ 

* This king boasted greatly of his erection, perhaps because it was of brick. 
"Wishing," says Herodotus, "to surpass all the kings who had reigned in 
Egypt before him, he left for a monument a pyramid of brick, with this inscrip- 
tion cut upon a stone : ' Degrade me »not by comparing me with the pyramids of 
stone. I am as much above them as is Amun above all other gods : for I have 
been built of bricks made with the mud brought up from the bottom of the lake. 
This is the most notable thing that Asychis did." — Herodotus, bk. ii. § 136. 

t The youthful student may be referred, for fuller information, to General 
Howard Vyse's " Observations on the Pyramids of Ghizeh;" Gliddon's " Egyp- 
tian Archaeology ; " and Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in Universal History." We 
may add that Sir G. Cornewall Lewis seems to intimate that none of the pyra- 
mids were anterior to the building of Solomon's Temple (1012 B.C.) ; while astro- 
nomical dates would certainly place the erection of the Great Pyramid eleven 
centuries earlier, or in 2123 B.C. At that time the star y Draconis was the pole 
star, and passed the lower meridian at Ghizeh at an altitude of 26 or 27 degrees — 
the inclination at which the straight passages on the north side of the Great 
Pyramid descend. 

The Pyramids have their legends : of a lighter character, in truth, than would 
seem to become such grave and hoary piles. Of one, the erection is ascribed to 
a princess of the Pharaonic race. Her father taunted her one day with the use- 
lessness of the personal charms she possessed in no ordinary measure, and was 
not unnaturally vain of. She vowed, in her anger, that she would raise, by the 
power of her beauty, a monument as lasting and as grand as any that her ances- 
tors had erected by the power of their armies. The number of her lovers, says 
Warburton, was thereupon increased by all who were content to sacrifice their 
fortune for her smiles. Her memorial, a massive pyramid, rose rapidly : to 
prove their devotion, her lovers ruined themselves ; but the fair architect secured 
the renown she desired, and was afterwards enshrined in Sappho's tender song. 
Another legend relates that a fair Greek girl, named Rhodope, was once bathing 
in the Nile, while the very birds of the air hovered round her, entranced in ad- 



142 MECHANICAL EXCELLENCE. 

An examination of these marvellous structures involves 
us in a labyrinth of thought. No one, for instance, can 
possibly penetrate into the interior of the Great Pyramid, 
as Mr. Fergusson remarks,* without being struck with 
astonishment at the wonderful mechanical skill displayed 
in its construction. The immense blocks of granite 
brought from Syene — a distance of five hundred miles — 
polished like glass, are so fitted that the joints can hardly 
be detected. Nothing can be more wonderful than the 
extraordinary amount of knowledge displayed in the 
construction of the discharging chambers over the roof 
of the principal apartment, in the alignment of the slop- 
ing galleries, in the provision of ventilating shafts, and 
in all the wonderful contrivances of the structure. All 
these, too, are carried out with such precision, that, not- 
withstanding the immense superincumbent weight, no 
settlement on any part can be detected to the extent of 
an appreciable fraction of an inch. Nothing more per- 
fect, mechanically, has ever been erected since that time; 
and we ask ourselves in vain, how long it must have 
taken before men acquired such experience and such 
skill, or were so perfectly organized, as to contemplate 
and complete such undertakings. 

Wonderful, continues Mr. Fergusson, as all this matu- 

% 

miration of her loveliness. An eagle, more rapturous than the rest, as might be 
expected of the bird of Jove, flew away with one of her dainty pantoufles in its 
talons ; but, startled by a sudden outburst of Egyptian loyalty, let fall the pre- 
cious souvenir at the feet of Pharaoh, who was holding his court in the open air. 
Our reader's imagination will supply the remainder of the story. Pharaoh com- 
manded an instant search for the owner of so small a slipper. She was found ; 
she was wooed ; she was won ; and within a pyramid erected to her glory now 
lies her dust. — Eliot Warburtoti, " The Crescent and the Cross," chap. xvi. 
* Fergusson, " History of Architecture," i. 81-83. 



THE SPHIXX AND ITS ASPECT. 



143 



rity of art may be when found at so early a period, the 
problem becomes still more perplexing when we again 
ask ourselves how long a people must have lived and 
recorded their experience before they came to realize 
and aspire to an eternity such as the building of these 
pyramids shows that they sacrificed everything to attain. 
One of their great aims was to preserve the body intact 
for three thousand years, in order that the soul might be 
again united with it when the day of judgment arrived. 
But what taught them to contemplate such periods of 
time with confidence % and, stranger still, how did they 
learn to realize so daring an aspiration % 

Such are some of the questions which a study of Egyp- 
tian monuments naturally suggests, but which, in our 
present state of knowledge, we are unable to answer 
satisfactorily. 

£ In front of the Pyramids — a solemn and majestic ap- 
( parition, rising, Pharos-like, above the surging sands which 
gather round it, — the billows of a petrified sea, — the tra- 
veller beholds the Sphinx, mutely tranquil and immov- 
ably serene, as in the days when religious processions 
marched up between its colossal paws to the temple 
which it sheltered in its all-embracing bosom. It is, 
perhaps, the most impressive of the Egyptian monu- 
ments ; and the*" traveller never wearies of gazing upon 
the " stony calm of its attitude," the weird beauty of its 
repose, the unutterable meaning of its eloquent coun- 
tenance. The Arabs expressively name it Aboolhol, 
" the father of terror," or " immensity." Bartlett com- 
pares it to " some mysterious pre-Adamite monarch," or 
" to one of those gigantic genii of Arabian fiction which 



144 



A CO MEL V CREA TL'RE. 



make their abode in the desolate places of the earth." 
Miss Martineau speaks of its " long, well-opened eyes- 
eyes which have gazed unwinking into vacancy, while 
mighty Pharaohs, and Hebrew lawgivers, and Persian 
princes, and Greek philosophers, and Antony with Cleo- 
patra by his side, and Christian anchorites, and Arab 
warriors, and European men of science, have been 




THE SPHINX. 



brought hither in succession by the unpausing ages to 
look up into those eyes— so full of meaning, though so 
fixed." But the eloquent author of " Eothen" has ex- 
pressed the admiration which it awakens in every thought- 
ful observer with yet greater faithfulness, and in language 
of singular force. 

Comely the creature is, he says,* but the comeliness 

* A. W. Kinglake, " Eothen ; or, Traces of Eastern Travel." 



BOTH EX OX THE SPHINX. 145 

is not of this world ; the once-worshipped beast is a 
deformity and a monster to this generation : and yet you 
can see that those lips, so thick and heavy, were fash- 
ioned according to some ancient mould of beauty — some 
mould of beauty now forgotten — forgotten because that 
Greece drew forth Cytherea from the flashing foam of 
the ^Egean, and in her image created new forms of beauty, 
and made it a law among men, that the short and proudly- 
wreathed lip should stand for the sign and main condi- 
tion of loveliness through all generations to come. Yet 
still there lives on the race of those who were beautiful 
in the fashion of the elder world ; and Christian girls of 
Coptic blood will look on you with the sad, serious gaze, 
and kiss your charitable hand with the big pouting lips, 
of the very Sphinx. 

" Laugh and mock, if you will," continues our author- 
ity, " at the worship of stone idols ; but mark ye this, ye 
breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol 
bears awful semblance of Deity — unchangefulness in 
the midst of change — the same seeming will and intent, 
for ever and ever inexorable ! Upon ancient dynasties 
of Ethiopian and Egyptian kings ; upon Greek and 
Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman, conquerors ; upon 
Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern Empire ; upon battle 
and pestilence \ upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyp- 
tian race ; upon keen-eyed travellers, Herodotus yester- 
day, and Warburton to-day; — upon all and more this 
unworldly Sphinx has watched, and watched like a Provi- 
dence, with the same earnest eyes, and the same sad, 
tranquil mien. And we, we shall die, and Islam wither 
away ; and the Englishman, straining far over to hold his 



146 



DIMENSIONS OF THE SPHINX. 



loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the 
Nile, and sit in the seats of the Faithful ; and still that 
sleepless rock will lie watching and watching the works 
of the new busy race, with those same sad, earnest eyes, 
and the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not," 
says Eothen, " you dare not mock at the Sphinx." 

The colossal figure is hewn out of the rock, excepting 
the fore-paws, which are built of squared stone : an 
enormous couchant monster, with gigantic arms r between 
which formerly nestled a miniature temple with a plat- 
form, and flights of steps for approaching it. In the old 
time, its head bore either the royal helmet or the ram's 
horns. It measures, from the belly to the highest part of 
the head, 56 feet; its length is 172 feet 6 inches; and 
the circumference round the colossal brows, 102 feet. 
Over the temple and altar of sacrifice the grand head of 
this tutelary deity towered from an altitude of 60 feet. 
The granite tablet above the altar is still visible, but the 
temple itself lies buried beneath the drifted sand. 

From a tablet which M. Mariette has discovered, it 
would appear that some repairs were effected on this 
extraordinary monument by Suphis, or Shufu, the chief 
founder of the Great Pyramid.* In that case, the Sphinx 
must have existed before the Pyramids ; and, in truth, if it 
then required renovation, must have existed long prior to 
those venerable piles. And, therefore, it is not only the 
most colossal, but the most ancient idol of which we have 
any knowledge. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs it is always 
referred to under the name of Ned, or " Lord," and 
Akar, or "Intelligence;" so that when we consider its 

* Renan, " Revue des Deux Mondes," 1865, pp. 675, et sqq. 



INTERESTING DISCOVERIES. 



147 



curious combination of the lion's body with the human 
head, we may, perhaps, be allowed to suppose that it 
symbolized Intellect and Strength. 

The Sphinx* of Ghizeh is the largest in EgypjJ Caviglia, 
who carefully explored it in 18 16, ascertained from three 
hieroglyphical tablets in its temple, that the said temple 
was dedicated to it, under the name of Haremakhu, or 
" Sun on the Horizon," by Thothmes III. and Rameses II. 
Before the altar, apparently a Roman addition, extended 
a dromos, or paved esplanade, repaired in the reigns 
of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, May the 10th, 
a.d. 160. Various votive inscriptions were discovered; 
and, especially, on the second digit of the left paw, the 
following, in Greek pentameters, by Arrian : — 

" Thy form stupendous here the gods have placed, 
Sparing each spot of harvest-bearing land ; 
And with this mighty work of art have graced 
A rocky isle, encumbered once with sand, 
And near the Pyramids have bid thee stand." 

Some further particulars were obtained by M. Mariette 
in 1852, who caused the vicinity to be carefully exca- 
vated. He laid open a peripolos, or outer wall, designed 
to protect it from the ever-shifting sands ; and ascertained 
that only the head of the Sphinx was sculptured. To 
the south he found a dromos leading to a temple, built, 
in the era of the fourth dynasty, of huge blocks of red 
granite and alabaster. Here, in the midst of the great 
chamber, were discovered seven statues — five mutilated, 
and two entire — of the monarch Chephren, or Sha-fre, 
which were very finely executed. 

* The word is from the Greek, and signifies " the Strangler." 



A VISIT TO MEMPHIS. 



A short distance to the south-east of the Pyramids, 
and on the bank of the river, a few mounds — a few 
shapeless ruins and mummy pits — indicate the site of the 
old capital of the Memphite kings, Memphis. 

It was known to the Egyptians as Men-nefer 7 or the 
" Good Station the Hebrews named it Noph ; and by 
the modern Arabs it is called Memf. If Herodotus may 
be credited,* it was founded by the first monarch of the 
first dynasty, Men or Menes, who diverted the course of 
the Nile, and raised an embankment of one hundred 
stadia in length, to protect his new city from inundations. 
The remains of this work, by whomsoever constructed, 
are still visible at Kafr-el-Tyat, which represents the 
centre of ancient Memphis, and the site of its most 
famous temple. A palace built by Menes, was enlarged 
by his son Athothis, and, when the seat of empire was 
removed to Thebes, became the residence of the viceroy. 

Long before Athens or Rome existed, Memphis was 
celebrated for its wealth, its population, its influence, 
and its commercial greatness. It was here the Persian 
conqueror Cambyses received the splendid embassies that 
came from all quarters of the known world, — 

" From India and the golden Chersonese, 
And utmost Indian isle Taprobane, 
Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed, "t 

In those its palmy days, its circumference was computed 
at sixteen miles. % Owing to its important position, it 
was frequently exposed to the storms of war during the 



* Herodotus, book ii. § 99. See also Diodorus, book i. c. 4. 
t Milton, " Paradise Lost." 

X Sir G. Wilkinson, " Topography of Thebes." p. 340. 



THE TRIAD OF MEMPHIS. 



149 



repeated revolts of the Egyptians against their foreign 
rulers. It was plundered and devastated by Ochus after 
his defeat of Nectanebus. Something of its former pros- 
perity had returned when it was visited by Alexander, 
who, after worshipping the Apis in its sacred temple, 
descended the Nile in a gilded galley to its Canobic 
mouth. The Greek conqueror's body was brought hither 
by Ptolemy, before its final removal to Alexandria. The 
early monarchs of the Lagid dynasty were crowned in the 
Serape'ion ; but the city was destroyed by Ptolemy VIII. 
With that extraordinary vitality which sometimes dis- 
tinguishes great cities, it revived under the Roman rule ; 
but after the conquest of Egypt by Amrou the Arab, 
finally sunk into decay, and contributed by its enormous 
ruins to the foundation of Cairo and Fostat. They were 
still of considerable importance and extent when visited 
by the Arab historian Abdalatif, in the thirteenth cen- 
tury. The scanty remains are now to be found at Koum- 
el-Uzyzeh on the north, and Metrahenny on the west. 

It was a curious feature of the ancient Egyptian wor- 
ship, that each large city or nome had its own Triad, or 
assemblage of three gods, whom it more particularly 
adored. The Triad of Memphis consisted of Ptah^ or 
" Fire" — identical with the Greek Hephaestos ; Pasht, or 
Bubastis, who may be identified with the Artemis of the 
Greeks; and the ox-god Apis, There would conse- 
quently be temples erected to these divinities ; but owing 
to the ruined condition of the city their sites cannot now 
be discovered, with the exception of that of Apis. 

The foundations of the last-named were discovered by 
M. Mariette in 1850-51. This was the magnificent Sera- 



THE A PE UM } OR SANCTUARY. 



peion, built by the Greeks on the site of that ancient 
" abode of Osor-hapi," or the " Osiris-Apis which the 
Egyptians had for ages regarded with peculiar reverence. 
It was approached from the city by an avenue of sphinxes 
— which, even in the time of Strabo, was partially buried 
in the sands — and consisted of four temples, respectively 
dedicated to Serapis, Astarte, Anubis, and Imouthos (or 
Aesculapius). Close at hand stood the Apeum, or sanc- 
tuary of the sacred bull, where he was carefully tended, 
as well as the cow from which he had sprung. As each 
bull died, his mummy was stored away in one of the 
corridors extending underground for a considerable dis- 
tance, and known as the "Mummy-pits of Apis;" and 
in which were preserved the remains of all the bulls from 
the reign of Amunophis III. (about b.c. 1400). The 
year in which" he was born, when he was set up in the 
place of honour in the Apeum, and when interred in his 
subterranean sepulchre, were recorded on a tombstone 
or monumental tablet ; and as these tablets range from 
the 19th dynasty to the epoch of Ptolemy III., Euergetes, 
in 247 b.c, their chronological value is very great. They 
number about twelve hundred, but the most important 
liave been removed to the Louvre at Paris. t The priest- 
hood of the Serape'ion formed a peculiar order, living 
wholly within the confines of the temple, and supported 
by the oblations of the devout. 

The mummies are arranged in two principal galleries, 
of which the more ancient is also the smaller ; the second, 



* This, however, is doubted by some authorities, who think that the Apeum 
stood south of the gateway of the Temple of Pthah. 
f Mariette, " Serapeum de Memphis (4X0, Paris, 1856). 



THE SEE A PRION. 



153 



in point of time, was begun in the fifty-third year of 
Psammetichus I., and contains about twenty-four magni- 
ficent granite sarcophagi. Its walls are covered with 
vivid decorations of the usual character. The other cor- 
ridors are of inferior character, and their monuments and 
decorations display no artistic merit. 

The Temple of Osiris-Apis, or Osor-hapi — that is, the 




BRONZES OF THE EGYPTIAN GOD APIS. 

"Osirified" or ''dead Apis" — was called by the Greeks 
the Serapeion, simply because they identified the Egyp- 
tian god with the deity Serapis, whose image and worship 
they translated from Sinope in Pontus to Alexandria, in 
consequence of a vision of Ptolemy I. (Soter). This new 
deity found great favour in the Greek cities founded in 
Egypt, and forty-two temples were raised to his honour. 



154 



APIS, A SYMBOL OF OSIRIS. 



The three most famous were those of Alexandria, Cano- 
bus, and Memphis. The Egyptian Apis, or divine bull, 
was worshipped as a symbol of Osiris. He was attended 
by a retinue of priests, and sacrifices of red oxen were 
offered to him. All his changes of appetite, his move- 
ments, and choice of places were watched as oracular. 
He was not allowed to live longer than twenty-five years. 
If he died a natural death before that age, his body was 
embalmed as a mummy, and interred in the subterranean 
tombs. Otherwise, he was secretly put to death, and 
buried by the priests in a sacred well. A new animal 
was then sought for. It was necessary he should be marked 
with a white square on his forehead, an eagle on his back, 
and a knot like a cantharus under his tongue. When 
found, he was conveyed with great pomp to Nilopolis, 
where he remained for forty days, attended by naked 
women, and was then removed to Memphis.* 

The ancient city also boasted of the Iseion, a magnifi- 
cent temple completed by Amasis IL, about 526 b.c ; 
of a temple to Ra, Re, or the Sun — throughout Egypt an 
object of peculiar reverence ; of the Nilometer, or standard 
which gauged the flood and ebb of the Nile, removed by 

* After the defeat of the Persian army in the Libyan Desert, Cambyses re- 
turned to this city (b.c. 524), to find its inhabitants rejoicing at the discovery of 
a calf marked with the mystic characters which declared it to be the divine bull. 
Supposing the public joy to be over his own defeat, Cambyses summoned the 
magistrates before him. They endeavoured to pacify him by relating the dis- 
covery of Apis, but were immediately condemned to death as liars. He then 
ordered Apis and his priests to be brought into his presence; "he would soon 
know,'' he said, "whether a tame god had really come to dwell in Egypt." 
Drawing his dagger, he stabbed the calf in the thigh, and sentenced the priests 
to be scourged. All his subsequent excesses and disasters were supposed by the 
Egyptians to be the penalty which the gods inflicted for this sacrilegious act. 



THE FIGURE OF R AMESES. 



155 



Constantine to Byzantium, but restored to Memphis by 
Julian the Apostate ; of a temple to Ptah, which was pro- 
bably one of surpassing magnificence ; the mysterious 
shrine of the Cabiri • and the huge colossal statues of 
Rameses II. The most signal evidence of its past 
grandeur is afforded, however, by the remains of its 
superb Necropolis, which, extending for miles along the 
frontier of the Desert, includes seven-and-sixty pyramids, 
and among these the three great marvels of Ghizeh. * 

There is one other memorial of ancient Memphis to 
which the traveller's attention should be directed. Hero- 
dotus tells us how Sesostris — that is, Rameses III. — 
erected in front of the great gateway a colossal statue of his 
royal self. And deep in a thick wide grove of palms, in a 
little pool of water left by the inundation which annually 
covers the spot, lies a gigantic effigy, its back upwards. 
The name of Rameses is carved upon its belt. The face 
lies downwards, but is visible in profile, and quite perfect, 
with a wonderful expression of repose and tranquillity. 

The reader should also be reminded; as we take leave 
of the capital of Menes, that it was once visited by the 
patriarch Abraham, was afterwards the residence of 
Joseph, and perhaps the birth-place of the Hebrew law- 
giver, Moses, t 

Another excursion from Cairo, not to be neglected by 

* Lepsius, '"' Reise Egypten," pp. 51-63. The pyramids form four principal 
groups : those of Ghizeh, the oldest and largest, Abou-Seir, Dashour, and Sak- 
kara. 

+ According to Manetho, Moses was born at Heliopolis ; yet the princess who 
rescued him from the Nile is said to have been the wife of " Chenephres," king 
of Memphis. 



156 



RUINS OF HELIOPOLIS. 



the traveller, is to Heliopolis, where, in a remote an- 
tiquity, — 

" An imperial city stood, 
With towers and temples proudly elevate ; " 

but whose site is now only marked by a circuit of mounds, 
and by an obelisk, supposed to be the oldest in Egypt. 

The road leads through fertile gardens, and irrigated 
fields of corn and rice, and, for the most part, under " the 
shade of melancholy boughs." As the tourist follows it, 
he pauses to examine the celebrated sycamore, under 
whose venerable branches tradition declares the Holy 
Family rested on their journey towards the south. 

Little now remains of Heliopolis, says a recent writer,* 
but a vast accumulation of debris and piles of refuse. 
It is strange, he adds, to trace the sites of the most 
ancient Egyptian cities by these immense heaps of crum- 
bled and broken bricks, which alone, in many instances, 
indicate where they once flourished. These bricks, 
though still hard and sometimes angular, are invariably 
of unburn ed earth, for there was no burned brick in 
Egypt before the time of the Roman dominion ; yet so 
tenacious is the mud and slime of the Nile of which they 
are composed, and so baking are the powerful rays of the 
sun in those latitudes, that the ancient bricks are almost 
as hard as stone. 

Heliopolis, as the oldest capital in Egypt, is rich in 
historical associations. Its Egyptian name was Ei-11-Re, 
" the Abode of the Sun from which came the Hebrew 
Abn or On. Its chief temple was dedicated to the sun- 
god. It was, in truth, the sanctuary of the learning and 

* Rev. A. C. Smith, " The Nile and its Banks," i. 100. 101. 



A REMARKABLE CITY. 



157 



wisdom of the Egyptians — the Egyptian Oxford — a clus- 
ter of temples and colleges, where the priests taught the 
mysteries of their faith. Here Joseph took to wife 
Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of the Sun. 
Here Moses was taught, by command of Pharaoh's 
daughter — the Pharaoh being Apophis, one of the Shep- 
herd Kings — the doctrines of the Egyptian religion, 
Here, in a day of darkness and woe, Jeremiah wrote 
his Lamentations over the decline of Judah. And here 
Eudoxus and Plato resided for thirteen years ; the latter 
imbibing that sublime belief in the immortality of the 
soul which he afterwards ex- 
pounded in the glorious elo- 
quence of the Phaedo. And 
here grew the famous Am- 
ryllis GileadensiS) yielding the 
fragrant balsamic resin of the 
"balm of Gilead" which the 
Queen of Sheba presented to 
Solomon.* 

Of old-world Egypt, Heli- 
opolis was the sacredest city, 
the very focus and centre of 
its active religious life, the 
source whence flowed, as it 
were, the higher impulses of 
its civilization. And now a solitary obelisk and " a cir- 
cuit of mounds " are all that exist to remind us of its 
" local habitation." It is this that renders Egyptian tra- 

* Josephus, ''Antiquities," book viii. 6. 6; Eliot Warb niton. "The Crescent 
and the Cross," c. v. 




i 5 8 



THE OBELISK OF OS IK TESEN. 



vel so mournfully impressive ; everywhere the eye rests 
on the most striking testimony of the mutability of human 
things, and the most eloquent proofs of the vanity of 
human ambition. 

The " solitary obelisk " to which I have referred is of 




THE OBELISK. 

red granite, and therefore must have come from the 
quarries of Syene, distant five hundred miles ; but who 
excavated it, who sculptured it, or how it was transported 
to its present site, and erected, are questions not to be 
answered by the most learned Egyptologist. Exclusive 



PYRAMIDS AND OBELISKS. 



159 



of the top, it measures 67 feet in height, and it bears the 
name of Osirtesen I., the most illustrious member of the 
twelfth dynasty, who reigned over both Upper and Lower 
Egypt. Its base is buried several feet in earth, gradually 
deposited by successive overflows of the river, which now 
pours into the area of the city, though in ancient times 
considerably below its level. 

It should be noted, as a rule with scarcely any excep- 




CARTOUCHE OF THOTHMES III, 



Hon, that while all the pyramids stand on the west bank of 
the Nile, which was considered preferable for purposes 
of sepulture, the obelisks were raised on the east. As 
these monoliths seem to have been principally dedicated 
to the sun-god, their position may have had some em- 
blematic reference to the quarter in which he first ap- 
peared. 

Several of the obelisks which anciently adorned Heli- 
opolis were removed by the Romans : one now rises 



i6o 



SOME FAMOUS OBELISKS. 



before the church of St. John Lateran ; another in the 
Atmeedan or Hippodrome of Constantinople. Both of 
these bear the well-known cartouche of Thothmes III. A 
third, in the Piazza del Popolo at Rome, originally erected 
by Menephthah, was transported to Rome by order of the 
Emperor Augustus. That of the Monte Cavallo was 
brought from Egypt by Claudius, a.d. 57. The two at 
Alexandria, which are popularly known as Cleopatra's 
Needles, also belonged to Heliopolis. 

Heliopolis, I may add, is situated on the east side of 
the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about twenty miles north- 
east of Memphis. 



CHAPTER III. 



B E X I - HASSAN , AND THE TOMBS — ANTINOOPOLIS SIOUT 

— GIRGEH — DENDERA, AND ITS TEMPLE. 



And a more delightful excursion it is difficult to imagine! 
There is a splendour in the sky, an elasticity in the air, 
to which the pilgrim from the cloudy West is wholly un- 
accustomed. The scenery through which he is carried 
easily and not too rapidly is of a striking and varied 
character. Villages of mud huts, embowered in groves 
of palm ; sandy shoals, alive with wings, and gay with 
the plumage of the flamingo and the ibis ; quaint native 
barges, of all sizes and types, carrying dusky passengers 
in brightly-coloured attire ; a yacht or two, belonging to 



Monarchs — the powerful and the strong — 

Famous in history and in song 

Of olden time. Loxgfellow. 



A reverend pile, 
With bold projections and recesses deep. 

Wordsworth. 




FTER our excursions to the Pyramids and 
Heliopolis, let us return to Cairo. Here we 
engage a dahabeeyah, or Nile-boat, and pre- 
pare for our voyage up the " sacred river." 



ANIMAL LIFE ON THE NILE. 



some adventurous European or wealthy Moslem ; men 
paddling along on rafts of pottery or water-melons ; little 
busy cafes, nestling in the shade of far-spread syca- 
mores ; creaking sakias, or water-wheels, used for the 
purpose of irrigation ; and beyond the emerald strip of 
fertile valley the yellow boundary of the Desert ; — all 
these combine to form a picture as splendid as it is rare. 

Nor will the animal life which swarms upon the river- 
banks fail to attract the traveller's gaze, from its abun- 
dance, its variety, and its newness. Water-fowl of several 
species ; grallatores and natatores, waited on by raptores, 
for death always attends life very closely, in the East as 
in the West : vultures and kites, hawks, kestrels, buzzards, 
and harriers, sweep by in swift succession. Here may 
be seen the carcass of a dead camel, with dogs rending 
it on one side, and vultures on the other, and hooded 
crows at hand to claim their portion of the booty. There 
the ploughman plods on his way, driving a team of camels, 
or a pair of cows, or a camel yoked with a cow, or even 
a tall gaunt camel mated with a diminutive donkey, while 
herons and spoonbills follow in a lively but grotesque 
procession. Sand-pipers and little ringed plovers are 
running on the shallows, and flocks of geese and ducks 
quacking «among the reedy marshes ; while, until we get 
too far inland, the occasional shadow of a gull or a tern 
flits like a cloud above our heads.* 

Passing through the narrow channel which separates 
the island of Rhoda t from Boulak (where, let me ob- 

* Rev. A. C. Smith, "The Nile and its Banks," i. 41, 42. 

+ At Rhoda stands the famous Nilometer, which, for centuries, has marked 
the rise of the inundation. It is also said to be the spot where the infant Moses 
was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter. 



f 



i 



ASCENDING THE NILE. 



167 



serve parenthetically, there is an admirable museum of 
Egyptian antiquities), we emerge upon the full broad 
river, rolling its waters between thick-clustering groves 
of palm. Yonder, across the level valley, loom the blue 
masses of the Pyramids, stretching far along the horizon 
from Ghizeh to Memphis ; and in the distance a warm 
rosy haze floats over the sands of the Libyan Desert. 
We pass, first, the Pyramids of Sakkara (two in number) ; 
and next, those of Dashour (also two) ; and in due time 
heave in sight of the plantations and minarets of Beni- 
souef. Here the traveller may land for the purpose of 
visiting Lake Moeris and the fertile district of the Faioum. 
Leaving behind us its palms, with their rich burden of 
golden dates, and its fluttering bowers of acacia, we sail 
onward, through ranges of barren cliffs, the offshoots of 
the Arabian and Libyan chains of mountains, to the cliff 
called Gebel e Tayr, or the " Mountain of the Birds." 
Here, according to an Arab legend, all the birds of 
Egypt congregate annually on a certain day ; and after a 
lively debate, all set out in a body, with the exception of 
a solitary sentinel left in charge of the spot until the 
return of his congeners in the following year. 

Yonder gleaming little town, encircled in date-groves, 
is called Minyeh : the river-channel at this point is con- 
siderably obstructed by dangerous sand-banks. Next 
we arrive at Beni -hasscui— the " Speos Artemidos" of 
the Greeks — where everybody lands to explore the cele- 
brated Tombs, situated high up among the gloomy rocks, 
which have been laboriously excavated to furnish the dead 
with resting-places. They seem to have served as the 
necropolis, or public cemetery of the Hermopolite nome, 

(295) 12 



i6S 



TOMBS OF BENI-HA SSAN. 



These tombs, thirty in number, are unique ; unique 
on account of their antiquity, their architecture, and their 
representations of Egyptian manners and customs ; and 
unique, because, unlike all other Egyptian sepulchres, 
they are situated on the east bank of the river. 

They are among the oldest known monuments in 
Egypt, and many of them must have received their 
tenants before Joseph rose into Pharaoh's favour — a 
thousand years, perhaps, before Joseph was born. It is 
not improbable that in the first place they were employed 
as the residences of the living.* At all events, one of 
them is of peculiar interest. It bears date from the early 
time of Sesortesen L, and consists of an arched cavern, 
whose walls are everywhere covered with pictorial lan- 
guage.f It has a vaulted portico, with two shapely 
pillars of the kind which the Greeks afterwards called 
Doric, each 23 feet high. Throughout its chambers the 
basement is painted a deep red ; and on this basement, 
as well as on the architraves, the hieroglyphics are green ; 
the general effect commending itself to the spectator's 
eye. The central avenue has a low coved ceiling, and 
at its extremity a large niche or recess. It is divided 
from the aisle on either hand by a row of columns, 
resembling those of the portico. 

In this painted chamber, or crypt, which is 30 feet 
square, occurs a remarkable procession, erroneously 
supposed, by some authorities, to represent the arrival 
of Joseph's brethren in Egypt. But, apart from other 



* Fergusson, fC History of Architecture." 

t The walls are covered with a thick coat of some kind of cement, and on the 
smooth surface thus presented, the paintings have been executed. 



TOMBS OF BEXI-HASSAN. 



171 



evidence which tends to show that the tomb was closed 
ten centuries before that event, there is enough in the 
procession itself to prove that it has no connection with 
Hebrew history.* 

At each end of the row stands a great man. The 
principal figure is named Neoothph, who was governor 
of this district, on the east side of the Nile, and, no 
doubt, the owner of the tomb. To him, as the old Dlay- 




BENI-HASSAN : — NEOOTHPH's TOMB ( EXTERIOR). 

book says, comes a dreary train of seven-and-thirty 
captives ; captives with white complexions, tunics, 
sandals, and long beards ; the women with dishevelled 
hair, and shod in ankle-boots. They bring with them 
offerings to appease the great man's wrath — a wild goat, 
a gazelle, a flock of ostriches, and one ibis. 

v Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," i. 47, et sqq. 



172 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PAST 



Others of the tombs are sculptured with the old 
Egyptian symbols, the lotus and the papyrus ; some 
have slightly-vaulted roofs, some smaller inner chambers : 
all are alive, as it were, with the ancient life, with the 
manners and customs, the occupations and the pastimes 
of a nation which flourished four or five thousand years 
ago. There is nowhere else in the world so curious 
a history of a people, written or painted by themselves. 




BEN I- HASSAN : — NEOOTHPH's TOMB (INTERIOR). 



We have here, says Miss Martineau, — and we shall 
freely avail ourselves of her animated description,* — the 
art of writing as a familiar practice, in the scribes who 
are numbering the stores on every hand. There are 
ships [including the bari, or high-prowed barge] which 
would look handsome in Southampton Water, any sunny 

* Miss Harriet Martineau, "Eastern Life," ii. 35-41. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PAST 173 

day. There are glass-blowers who might be from New- 
castle, but for their dress and complexion. There are 




EGYPTIANS SPINNING. EGYPTIAN WEAVING. 

(From the Monuments.) 



flax-dressers, spinners, weavers, and a production of 
cloth which an English manufacturer would study with 




EGYPTIAN POTTER. 

interest. There are potters, painters, carpenters, and 
statuaries. Here a doctor attends a patient ; there a 



174 



EGYPT AS IT WAS. 



herdsman physics cattle. The hunters employ arrows, 
spears, and the lasso. The lasso is as evident as on the 
pampas at this day. You may see the Nile full of fish, 
and a hippopotamus among the ooze. Yonder is the 
bastinado for the men ; and the flogging of a seated 
woman. Nothing is more extraordinary than the gym- 
nastics and other pastimes of the females. Their various 
games of ball are excellent. The great men are attended 
by dwarfs and buffoons, as in a much later age ; and it 
is clear that bodily infirmity was treated with contempt 
— deformed and decrepit personages appearing in the 
discharge of the meanest offices. It was an age when 
this might be looked for ; when war would be the most 
prominent occupation, and wrestling the prevailing sport, 
and probably also the discipline of the soldiery ; when 
hunting, fishing, and fowling would be very important 
pursuits. But then, what a power of representation of 
these things is here ! and what luxury co-existing with 
those early pursuits ! Harpers may be seen with their 
harps of seven strings ; and garments and boat-sails with 
elegant patterns and borders — where, by the way, angular 
and regular figures are pointedly preferred ; and the 
ladies' hair, disordered and flying about in their sports, 
has tails and tassels, very like what may have been seen 
in London drawing-rooms in no very remote times. 
The circumstance which most reminds one of the anti- 
quity of these paintings is, that the name of bird, beast, 
fish, or artificer is written . above the object delineated. It 
is the resource — not needed here, however — of the artist 
who wrote on his picture. •"This is a man,'" "This is 
a monkey." Another barbarism is, that the great man, 



THE VOYAGE CONTINUED. 



175 



the occupant of the tomb, has his greatness signified by 
bigness, being a giant among middle-sized people. 
There are brick-makers also, who are shown going 
through the different processes of their craft ; and other 
trades and occupations receive the fullest and most vivid 
illustration. 




BRICK-MAKERS. 
(From a Tcmb at Beni-hassan.) 



Such are the glimpses of Egyptian life which the 
traveller obtains in the tombs at Beni-hassan, 

We resume our voyage ; sailing up the stream to the 
loud and discordant choral music of the Reis and his 
boatmen, and enjoying the magic changes of the land- 
scape at sunrise and sunset — the bright light which, at 
dawn, kindles up the palm groves and the distant hills — 
the after-glow, which, when the orb of' day has paled its 



1 76 



FROM GIRGEH TO KEN EH. 



fires, illuminates minaret, and grove, and garden, and rip- 
pling waves with an indescribable glory. Yonder lies 
the village of Sheikli-Abadeh, near the site of that An- 
tinobpolis which the Emperor Hadrian founded in honour 
of his handsome favourite Antinous;* there rise, in awful 
grandeur, the dark abrupt precipices of Djebel Aboufodde, 
pierced with innumerable caverns, the asylum, in old 
times, of Christian anchorites, and, on one occasion, the 
refuge of the great Athanasius. On a high bank of earth 
above the river stands Manfalut Next we come in sight 
of Si out, the capital of Upper Egypt, and the depot of the 
slave-caravans from Darfur. It is a considerable town, 
with handsome mosques, respectable bazaars, and a fer- 
tile country around it. 

About twenty-four miles from Girgeh lie the ruins of 
Abydns, or This, including the hoary remains of two 
temples, founded by Osirei and his son Rameses the 
Great. Very pleasant is the scenery between Girgeh and 
Keneh y the Neapolis of Herodotus ; a fertile plain, 
covered with luxuriant crops of sugar-cane and Indian 
corn, and brightened with rich clusters of the fan-leaved 
doum or Theban palm. A crocodile or two are now 
occasionally seen among the dark herbage that fringes 
the sand-banks. This is the nearest point which the Nile 
attains to the Red Sea. It is only one hundred and 
twenty miles from Kosseir, and consequently a principal 
rendezvous with the Mecca pilgrims. 

We next arrive at Dendera — the " Tentyra " of the 
Greeks — whose temple is considered by many travellers 



* The direction of its principal streets may still be traced. The town seems 
to have measured about a mile and a half in length, and half a mile in breadth. 



TEMPLE OF DENDERA. 



179 



the noblest in Egypt.* It is thrown into fine relief by 
the dark woods of palms which gather in its rear. The 
facade is vast and sombre, with four rows each of six mass- 
ive columns, the capital of each consisting of the head of 
the goddess Athor, the Venus of the Egyptians ; — dif- 
ferent, indeed, from the loose-zoned, laughing goddess 




PROPYLON OF THE TEMPLE OF DENDERA. 



of the Greeks, and wearing an expression of " bewitching 
half modesty," which might well impress the worshipper 
with admiration. The temple is in excellent preserva- 
tion — as if, says Mr. St. John,t the Power in whose 

* Hamilton, " Aegyptiaca," pp. 196-204. 

t J. A. St. John, " There and Back Again in Search of Beauty." 



THE GREAT PORTICO, 



honour it was built still sheltered its shrine from utter 
destruction.* 

The great portico is a specimen of the later Egyptian 
art, having been erected as late as the reign of Tiberius. 
Its ceiling exhibits a representation of the zodiac, which 
our antiquaries, says Mr. Sharpe, once thought of great 
antiquity, though the sign of the Scales should have 
taught them that it could not date further back than the 
reign of Augustus, who gave that name to the group 
of stars formerly included in the Scorpion's spreading 
claws, t 

It is impossible not to admire the zeal of the Egyp- 
tians by whom this work was finished. They were 
treated as slaves by their Greek fellow-countrymen ; 
they, the fallen descendants of the conquering kings of 
Thebes, had every third year their houses ransacked in 
search of arms: the Romans only ruled to drain the 
province of its wealth, and the temple was perhaps 
never heard of by their Emperor, who cannot have 
been aware that the most lasting monument of his reign 
was being raised in the distant province of Egypt. Who 
will refuse his tribute of respect to a people who, denying 
themselves all beyond the coarsest food and clothing as 
luxuries, thought a noble temple for the worship of the 
gods the supreme necessity of their lives 1 

To the great portico succeeds a hall of six columns, 

* Important excavations, however, are taking place here under the superin- 
tendence of M. Mariette. 

f It is exceedingly doubtful whether this so-called Zodiac has any real astro- 
nomical signification. There seems reason to believe that it rather represents 
a procession of the Tentyrite Triad (Isis, Athor. and her son Horus or Ehoou' 
and their cognate deities. 



THE ABODE OF ATHOR. 183 

with three rooms on either side. Then comes a central 
chamber, communicating on one side with two small 
rooms, and on the other with a staircase. Passing 
through another similar chamber, with two rooms on the 
west and one on the east side, we enter the " holy of 
holies" — the naos, or sanctuary — which has a corridor 
around it, and communicating with three rooms on either 
hand. 

The total length of the temple is about 220 feet ; its 
width, 41 feet; or, across the portico, 50 feet. The walls 
are everywhere covered with a profusion 
of elaborate hieroglyphics,* mostly re- 
lating to the worship of the Egyptian god- 
dess, who had here her most sacred abode 
(Dendera = Thy-n- Athor, the abode of 
Athor). She ranked in the second class 
of deities, as the daughter of Ra, the 
Sun, and was identified by the Greeks 
with their Aphrodite. Her symbol was 
the cow, and in hieroglyphics she gener- 
ally appears with the head of that animal, 
bearing between her horns the figure of isis or athor, with 

THE INFANT HORUS. 

the solar disc. In the earlier Egyptian 

mythology she seems to have symbolized the creative 

principle of the world ; at a later period she became 

simply the goddess of " the laugh, the jest, and the 

song." 

The other buildings at Dendera are of inferior im- 
portance, though not unworthy of examination. Behind 




* Among them are a few historical portraits, as those of Cleopatra and her son 
Csesarion. 

v295) ' 23 



1 84 



THE SO-CALLED TYPHOXELON. 



the south-west angle of the great temple stands the 
Iseion, or Temple of Isis 3 erected in the reign of Augus- 
tus, and consisting of one central and two lateral cham- 
bers, with a corridor in front. The names of Augustus, 
Claudius, and Nero are found among its hieroglyphics. 

About three hundred feet to the north is situated the 
Typhoneio?i so named from the figures and emblems of 
Typhon upon its walls. Champollion observes, however, 
that every other design has some reference to the birth 
of Ehoou, the son of Athor ; and suggests that this was 
one of the sacred places called " Mammeisi," or u lying- 
in-chambers," in commemoration of Athofs delivery. If 
this suggestion be correct, Typhon is simply introduced 
in the sculptures as symbolizing that chaos or primeval 
darkness which precedes creation or birth.* 

The building contains two outer chambers, and a 
central and lateral adytum. A range of twenty-two 
columns embellishes it on the sides and rear. 



Champollion, " Lettres sur l'Egypte, ii. 67. 





CHAPTER IV. 



THEBES : ITS HISTORY — THE RAMESEION — THE AMUNO- 

PHEION — THE COLOSSI — THE THOTHMESEION THF 

PALACE OF RAMESES — THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS — 
MEDINET-ABOO — LUXOR — KARNAK — THE THEBAID. 

High towers, faire temples, goodly theaters, 
Strong walls, rich porches, princelie pallaces, 
Large streetes, brave houses, sacred sepulchers, 
Sure gates, sweete gardens, stately galleries, 
Wrought with faire pillours and fine imageries ; 
All these (O pitie !) now are turned to dust, 
And overgrown with black oblivion's rust. 

Spenser. 

RECENT traveller has described the feeling 
which creeps upon the Nile voyager when, 
after a sail of about five-and-twenty miles 
from Dendera, he turns a certain angle of the 
river, and sees before him the plain of ancient Thebes — 
Thebes the magnificent— the k ' populous No" of the 
prophet Nahum — the great city of which Homer wrote as 

" Royal Thebes, 
Egyptian treasure-house of countless wealth, 
Who boasts her hundred gates, through each of which, 
With horse and car, two hundred warriors march." * 

All that is left of her lies here, here on the wreck- 

* Homer's £< Iliad," book ix., Lord Derby's translation, i., 206. 




i86 



RUINS OF THEBES. 



strewn plain. Yes, the multitudes are gone, and the city 
lies desolate ; but the forms of the landscape are fixed as 
the everlasting hills. The multitudes are gone, says Mr. 
Hopley,* but that circling barrier of rock-mountain which 
rises in the west is their prison-house — Thebes is still 
peopled with the dead. Yonder, for the ancient Theban, 
lay the region of the sunset — Amenti, the world beyond 
the grave. And between rolled the River of Death, the 
Funereal Lake. See it now in the distance, gleaming in 
the soft glow of twilight ! There, beyond it, on the 
mountain, hundreds of tombs gape open, planted thickly 
in sheltering niches, under towering crags, and upon in- 
accessible heights. Wherever the eye wanders it rests 
on the city of the dead. And in that mountain's shadow, 
age after age, sits Memnon on his throne of rock — type 
of steadfast Faith — patiently awaiting the coming of the 
Day. Is it a dream of the brain, that silent, shining 
river flowing through the crimson evening, — that pillared 
and many-templed shore % Nay ; it is, in truth, the Nile 
that you gaze upon, and the ruins of that mighty Thebes, 
into which, as Dean Stanley says,f for two thousand 
years — from the time of Joseph down to the Christian 
era — the splendour of the Earth was poured. As one 
thinks of all this vanished glory, the burden of the past 
becomes almost too heavy to endure. 

The name of Thebes is formed from the Tape, or T-ape 
— that is," the head " — of the old Egyptian language. It 
was also called Amwiei, or the "abode of Amun " (Am- 
nion, or Zeus, the ram-headed god) ; whence the Greeks 



* Hopley, " Under Egyptian Palms," p. 127. 

t Dean Stanley, " Sinai and Palestine," Introd., p. xlii. 



ITS ADMIRABLE POSITION. 



187 



designated it Aioo-n-oXis rj fieydXr], or Diospolis Magna — 
the great city of Zeus. It is the No and No-Amvion of the 
Hebrew Scriptures.* The 
name "Thebes" applied 
to the whole city on both 
banks of the Nile, but the 
western quarter bears the 
distinctive appellation of 
Pathyris, orTathyris,from 
its being under the spe- 
cial favour of Athor. 

Its situation was ad- 
mirably adapted to favour 
the development of a great 
city. Planted on the 
banks of a navigable river, 
near the main routes that 
led through the littoral 
hills to the Red Sea, on 
the one hand ; and, on the 
other, across the Libyan 
wilderness to the Great 
Desert; it became the en- 
trepot, until Alexandria rose into existence, of the com- 
merce of Eastern Africa. It was also celebrated for the 
industrial capacities of its inhabitants ; for its manufac- 
tures of linen, pottery, and glass ; and its wealth was 
further increased by the resort to its temples of all who 
worshipped the sun-god, Amun-Ra. 

Alone of the Egyptian cities, as Dean Stanley observes, 




AMUN-RA, THK SUN-GOD. 



Ezekiel xxx. 14 ; Nahum iii. 8. 



HISTORY OF THEBES. 



was Thebes beautiful by nature as by art. For the first 
time the monotony of the two mountain-ranges — Libyan 
and Arabian — assumes a new and varied character. 
They each withdraw from the river so as to encircle a 
wide green plain ; the western rising into a bolder and 
more massive barrier, and shutting in the plain at its 
northern extremity as by a natural bulwark \ the eastern, 
further retired, is a loftier and more varied chain, rising 
and falling in almost Grecian outline, though cast in the 
conical form which marks the hills of Nubia in the south, 
and which perhaps suggested the Pyramids. Within the 
circle of these two ranges, thus peculiarly its own, the 
green plain stretches on either side the river to an unusual 
extent ; and on either side of the river — in this respect 
unlike Memphis, but like the great city of the further 
East on the Euphrates, — like the cities of northern Europe 
on their lesser streams — spread the city of Thebes, with 
the Nile for its mighty thoroughfare. "Art thou better 
than No ( Amon,' that was situated by the 1 rivers of the 
Nile,' that had the waters round about, whose rampart 
was ' the sea-like stream,' and whose wall was ' the sea- 
like stream ? ' " * 

The hundred-gated Thebes was a mighty city even in 
so remote an antiquity as the days when Abraham led 
his flocks to drink of the Nile's sweet waters. A thou- 
sand years had rolled over its monuments and palaces 
when the Greek warriors encamped before the walls of 
Troy. Its era of magnificence, however, really com- 
menced with the eighteenth dynasty of the Pharaohs, 
when its sovereign, Aah-mes L, expelled the last of the 



* Dean Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," Introd., pp. xl., xli. 



THE THEBAN KINGS. 



Shepherd kings from Lower Egypt, and brought Mem- 
phis and the Delta under his dominion. Each successive 
monarch afterwards contributed to the embellishment of 
the ancient capital, until both banks of the river glittered 
with palaces and temples whose like the world has never 
since beheld. The second founder of the kingdom was 
Amunophis L, who seems to have been apotheosized, and 
who carried his victorious arms both into Syria and 
Ethiopia. Then came the illustrious Thothmes II.. who 
began the series of splendid edifices to which we have 
referred, and founded the immense pile of the Royal 
Palace. Thothmes II. is supposed to have converted 
Ethiopia into a principality of the empire, which was 
governed by a member of the royal family. To his 
sister, and, perhaps, colleague in the monarchy, Nemt- 
Amen, are ascribed the great obelisks of Karnak. Next 
came Thothmes III., who ruled from Mount Sinai on 
the east, to the Second Cataract on the south; who com- 
pleted the Palace of the Kings, covered Thebes with 
obelisks and sphinxes, and enriched all the towns of the 
Thebaid with splendid buildings. As we have stated in 
our historical introduction, he won a great victory at 
Megiddo, subjugated Syria and Mesopotamia, and ex- 
acted tribute from Phoenicia, Babylon, Assyria, and the 
fair islands of the Archipelago. From an extant astro- 
nomical record it is believed that the year b.c. 1444 fell 
in the reign of this able and successful monarch, — the 
" Edward the First" of Egypt, — a great administrator, 
and a famous warrior. 

His successor and son, Amunophis II., like all of his 
race, was a great builder. Amunophis III., whose name is 



T90 



RAMESES OR SESOSTRIS. 



found at Toumbos, near the Third Cataract, enlarged the 
frontiers of his kingdom to Soleb, and increased its re- 
sources. He embellished Thebes with two magnificent 
palaces — one on either bank of the Nile ; and founded 
the splendid structures whose ruins encumber the plain 
at Luxor. He is designated in the sculptures " the Con- 
queror of the Mennahoun," and the " Pacificator of 
Egypt." So world-wide was his fame that the Greeks 
celebrated him as Memnon, son of Amun-Ra, and in his 
honour were erected the Memnonian colossi. After his 
death divine rites were paid to this extraordinary man. 

Passing over Rameses I., the founder of a great 
dynasty, we come to Sethi or Seethee I. (Setei Mene- 
phthah), who built temples at Amada and Silsilis, and con- 
quered five Asiatic nations. His tomb was discovered 
by Belzoni in the Bab-el-Melook. Under Rameses II. 
the empire continued to flourish, and its boundaries were 
maintained, if not enlarged. Rameses III. is the Sesos- 
tris of Herodotus : he raised Thebes to the climax of its 
prosperity and power, and by his genius, his successes, 
and his fame so impressed the imagination of the Egyp- 
tians that, in later times, they ascribed to him the great 
achievements of many other monarchs, and involved his 
genuine history in a cloud of legend and fable. Diodorus 
was informed that he could lead into the field 600,000 in- 
fantry, 27,000 chariots, and 24,000 cavalry. All that can 
be safely asserted is, that he carried his victorious arms 
further than any of his predecessors ; that he was remark- 
able for his valour, ability, and majestic person ; that he 
built the Rameseion, or " monument of Osymandyas," on 
the west bank of the Nile ; that he ascended the throne 



IXVASION OF CAMBYSES. 



191 



when a minor, and reigned upwards of sixty years. In the 
annals of Egypt no hero nils a more conspicuous place. 

And yet with this great conqueror terminated the 
glorious days of Thebes. That fate which, or soon or 
late, overtakes every empire, fell upon the Egyptian 
kingdom, and the Tanite and Bubastite sovereigns of 
Lower Egypt rose into power. Of these, one of the 
most eminent was Sheshonk, the Shishak of the Bible, 
who defeated Rehoboam, and plundered Jerusalem, 
bringing back to Thebes the golden shields that had 
shone upon the walls of Solomon's Temple (b.c. 972). 
Then came an Ethiopian dynasty, marking a period of 
foreign conquest, and the seat of government was trans- 
ferred to Sais in the Delta. 

The invasion of Cambyses was the first great calamity 
which Thebes experienced. He rifled its tombs, over- 
threw its temples, and destroyed the statues of its early 
rulers. Yet, as in all imperial cities there is a surprising 
vitality, we need not be surprised that Thebes once 
more regained, if not its political importance, at all events 
its wealth and splendour. It was at this time visited by 
Hecataeus of Abdera, who had served in the army of 
Alexander. He explored its antiquities, and wondered 
at its opulence. The Rameseion was still erect in all its 
stateliness, and the temples were computed to hold the 
immense sum of three hundred talents of gold, and two 
thousand three hundred talents of silver. He saw also 
the other three palace-temples of Thebes, now called by 
the names of the villages in which they stand — Luxor 
(Luqsor, or El-Uksor), Karnak, and Medinet-Aboo. 

The Theban priests showed Hecataeus the large 



192 



REIGN OF THE PTOLEMYS. 



wooden mummy cases of their predecessors, ranged in 
order round the walls of the temple, to the number of 
three hundred and forty-five ; and when the Greek 
boasted that he was the sixteenth in descent from Jupiter, 
they silenced him with the remark, that those three hun- 
dred and forty-five priests had governed Thebes in suc- 
cession from father to son, each a mortal and the son of 
a mortal, and that so many generations had passed since 
the gods Osiris and Horus had ruled over Egypt. We 
cannot now determine the amount of exaggeration in this 
statement ; but it is certain that the antiquity of Greece, 
as compared with that of Egypt, was as the antiquity of 
Britain compared with that of Greece. 

The Ptolemys scarcely contributed to the architec- 
tural grandeur of the hundred-gated city by introducing 
many of the modifications suggested by the Greek taste, 
for they did not harmonize with the severe magnificence 
of the Egyptian monuments. In the reign of Ptolemy 
Lathyrus, Thebes rebelled. Intrenched within their 
temples, its inhabitants defied for three years the armies 
of their sovereign. Famine, and overwhelming numbers, 
and superior military weapons, eventually compelled 
them to yield ; and a terrible revenge descended upon 
their heads. Numbers were sold into slavery ; and the 
glorious memorials of their glorious history — the stately 
monuments which so eloquently bore witness to the 
genius, industry, and opulence of their ancestors — were 
broken down by hammer and pickaxe, and shattered into 
piles of debris.* 

* Sir Gardner Wilkinson, "Modern Egypt and Thebes," ii. p. 225, et sqq.; 
Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," i. pp. 150, 151, et sqq. * 



SITE OF ANCIENT THEBES. 



193 



Thebes, however, remained for some centuries the 
headquarters of the Egyptian priesthood, until the ancient 
worship disappeared before the progress of Christianity, 
and the proselytes displayed the ardour of their faith by 
destroying the idols and shrines spared by previous dep- 
redators. Then came the Saracenic invasion, and the 
heavy hand of the Arab consummated its ruin. 

The site of ancient Thebes is now marked by four 
small villages — Luxor and Karnak on the eastern, and 
Gurneh and Medinet-Aboo on the western bank of the 
Nile. The latter is chiefly occupied by the remains 
of the great necropolis, " the tombs of the kings," the 
palaces, temples , and sphinx-avenues of the Egyptian 
capital; on the eastern bank seem to have been situated 
its edifices of a secular character, and here, too, the mass 
of the inhabitants appear to have dwelt. Our survey 
will begin with the western quarter, and at its northern 
angle. 

About three-quarters of a mile from the river moulder 
the remains of a building which Champollion calls the 
Me?iephtheio7i^ from the occurrence of the name of Setei- 
Menephthah among the inscriptions on its walls. It 
formed a palace-temple, to which access was gained by a 
dromos (or avenue) of 128 feet in length. 

Next we arrive at the Rameseion — the Memnoninm 
of Strabo, and the " tomb of Osymandyas " of Dio- 
dorus. 

If it were possible for the spirits of the dead to revisit 
the " glimpses of the moon," and haunt the scenes most 
dear to them during their earthly existence, surely the 



194 



THE RAM ES EI ON. 



old Egyptian kings would nightly roam among those 
hoary ruins, and lament the vanished splendours of 
their creed and dynasty ! 

The Rameseion was both a palace and a temple — the 
residence of the sovereign and his gods. It was un- 
worthy of neither, for never did even Egyptian archi- 
tecture create a more splendid pile. What art " incon- 
ceivable to us " erected, violence inconceivable to us 
has overthrown * and the huge heaped-up blocks are 
a more powerful commentary on the nothingness of 
human ambition than the homilies of a thousand mo- 
ralists. 

It is finely situated on the lowest grade of the hills as 
they begin to ascend from the plain, and its various parts 
occupy a series of terraces, one rising above the other in 
a singularly impressive and majestic fashion. Its pro- 
pylon, or outer gateway, is grandly massive. Sculptures 
embellish it, very quaint and vivid. It formed the 
entrance to the first court, whose walls are destroyed. 
Some picturesque Ramessid columns remain, however ; 
and at their foot lie the fragments of the hugest statue 
that was ever fashioned by Egyptian sculptor ! It was a 
fitting ornament for a city of giants \ such an effigy as 
might have embellished a palace built and inhabited by 
Titans ! Unhappily, it is broken from the middle; but 
when entire it must have weighed — what think you, 
reader ? — about 887 tons, 5^ cwts. ; and have measured 
22 feet 4 inches across the shoulders, and 14 feet 4 inches 
from the neck to the elbow. The toes are from 2 to 3 
feet long. The whole mass is composed of Syene granite ; 
and I offer it as a problem to engineers and contractors 



I 
! 



THE GRAND HALL. 



197 



of the present day, — How were nearly 900 tons of granite 
conveyed some hundreds of miles from Syene to Thebes 1 
It is equally difficult to imagine how, in a country not 
afflicted by earthquakes, so colossal a monument was 
overthrown. 

The second court was divided into aisles or avenues, 
by rows of huge Ramessid and circular columns, covered 
with emblematical and historical carving. Three flights 
of steps led up from its sun-lit area into the northern 
corridor of Ramessid pillars. On each side of the central 
one stood a black granite statue of Rameses. The head 
of one of them, called " the young Memnon," is now 
preserved in the British Museum. This was a fit intro- 
duction to the splendours of the Grand Hall, which 
seemed like some stately forest petrified into stone, with 
the lotus, the papyrus, and other river-plants all suddenly 
frozen in the midst of their budding life. The lighting 
of this hall, which, according to Champollion, was used 
for public assemblies, is beautiful. The roof in the 
centre, says Miss Martineau,* was raised some feet above 
the lateral roofing, so that large oblong spaces were left 
for a sight of the blue sky ; and when they admitted the 
slanting rays of the rising and setting sun upon this grove 
of pillars, and, through them, kindled up the pictured 
walls, the glory must have been great. This roofing 
rested upon forty-eight pillars ; a roofing painted blue, and 
studded with golden stars, like the sky of night. Twelve 
central pillars were larger than the others. All the capi- 
tals were sculptured in imitation of the graceful bell- 
shaped flower of the papyrus ; and the decorations, de- 

* Harriet Martineau, <l Eastern Life," i. 294. 



198 TO THE GLORY OF R AMESES. 

signed from the stalks and flowers of different plants, 
painted in blue and green, and often exquisitely beautiful. 

The sculptures which cover the walls are all devoted 
to the glorification of Rameses. He is represented as 
paying his homage to the gods, and receiving from them 
various privileges. Amun the Supreme is here, with the 
other two who complete the highest triad ; and the god 
of letters, Thoth, notes the dates of the royal victories 
on his palm-branch. Elsewhere we see him honoured 
with the priceless gifts of life and power ; or he is in- 
trusted with the sword and the sceptre, to smite his foes 
with the one and to rule his subjects with the other. 
The use he made of his gifts is also illustrated. We are 
shown his battles, his sieges, his triumphs, his numerous 
captives : nor are his twenty-three sons or his three 
daughters forgotten. An inscription on one of the 
architraves of the Great Hall describes the splendour 
and beauty of the edifice, and dedicates it to the king's 
father, the Supreme, who says, " It is my will that your 
structure shall be as stable as the sky." Alas ! Time 
has painfully falsified the boast. And Isis adds, " I grant 
you long life to govern Egypt." * 

The next chamber is supposed to have been the Li- 
brary, or " Dispensary of the Mind," described by Strabo. 
An astronomical subject was blazoned on the ceiling ; 
and an inscription, alluding to the value of the apart- 
ment, still speaks of the " books of Thoth." The Egyp- 
tian Mercury is here attended, as Champollion records, 
by a figure with one eye in his face labelled " Source of 
light and the goddess Saf, the " lady of letters," is in 

* Champollion, " Lettres sur l'Egypte." 



PICTURES OF STRIFE AND BATTLE. 199 



like manner attended by a figure with an ear labelled 
" Source of hearing;" — signifying, perhaps, that man 
arrives at knowledge through the ear and the eye. 

Of nine chambers which lay in the rear of the Hall, 
only two remain — the Library, and another in which 
Rameses is sacrificing to various Theban divinities. 




OPERATIONS OF A SIEGE. 
(From the Monuments.) 



The sculptures on the exterior walls breathe only of 
battle and strife — the pride, pomp, and circumstance of 
victorious war. Rameses is represented as standing aloft 
in his war-chariot, and drawing his huge bow. In the 
battle a lion rages hither and thither. The conqueror 
drives headlong over bound and prostrate captives, while 

his enemies fall around him in all the attitudes of despair 

(295; 14 



200 



THE AMU NO PHEION, 



and degradation. A phalanx of gallant spearmen bear 
down the hostile forces with irresistible vigour. 

A curious scene describes an attack upon a rock-built 
fortress named " the strong town of Watsch." Under 
cover of the testudo or shield — a frame-work large enough 
to shelter several men — the Egyptian warriors, led by 
the king's sons, are engaged in mining, and planting 
scaling-ladders against the wall. The defenders, mean- 
while, are hurling down darts, and stones, and spears ; 
and yet, as if conscious of the fruitlessness of further 
resistance, are waving signals of surrender, and despatch- 
ing their heralds to implore the conqueror's clemency. 

Such was the Rameseion. It looked towards the east, 
facing the magnificent temple at Karnak. Its propylon, 
in the days of its glory, was in itself a structure of the 
highest architectural grandeur, and the portion still extant 
measures 234 feet in length. The principal edifice was 
about 600 feet in length and 200 feet in breadth, with 
upwards of 160 columns, each 30 feet in height. A wall 
of brick enclosed it; and a dromos, fully 1600 feet long, 
and composed of two hundred sphinxes, led in a north- 
westerly direction to a temple or fortress, sheltered among 
the Libyan hills. 

Our attention will now be directed to the Konm-el- 
Hattam (" sandstone mountain") of the Arabs — the ruins 
of the Amunopheion, or palace-temple of AmunophisIIL, 
the "Memnon" of the Greeks. About five hundred 
yards nearer the river are situated the two Colossi, or 
gigantic statues of the king— called Tama and Chama 
by the natives — which, sitting alone amidst the wide sea 



THE TWO COLOSSI, 



201 



of verdure, keep vigilant though silent watch over the 
mysteries of the Past.* There they sit, says Miss Mar- 
tineau, hands on knees, gazing straight forward, seeming, 
though so much of the faces is gone, to be looking over 
to the monumental piles on the other side of the river, 
which became gorgeous temples after these throne-seats 
were placed here — the most immovable thrones that have 




THE COLOSSI, OR RAMESSIDS. 



ever been established on this Earth. He who is popu- 
larly called " the Memnon," and is the more northerly of 
the two, has been greatly dilapidated ; either by Cam- 
byses, or, as Strabo reports and the prophet Ezekiel fore- 
told,! by an earthquake. One would like to think, with 

* English travellers have jocosely christened them, says Mr. A. C. Smith, 
" Lord Dundreary and his Cousin Sam." 

t Ezek. xxx. 16 — " No shall be rent asunder." 



202 



TRADITION OF MEMNON. 



Miss Martineau,* that Nature, rather than Man, had 
done it : but how came the earthquake to leave the mass 
of the throne and body unhurt, while shattering the head 
and shoulders \ It is improbable that the whole was 
overthrown and then re-erected, the twin-giant remaining 
uninjured. 

These statues are composed of a coarse, hard breccia, 
mixed with pebbles of an agate character. The pedestals 
are sculptured with numerous figures and hieroglyphs. 

The old tradition ran that from the northern Memnon, 
when the sun rose over the purple Arabian mountains, a 
strain of music issued : 

" Morn from Memnon drew 
Rivers of melody " ( Tennyson) — 

a sweet, melancholy cadence, like that of the /Eolian 
wires — 

" Soft as Memnon's harp at morning, . 
Touched with light by heavenly warning " — [KebU). 

The Greeks fabled that this morning music was Mem- 
non's welcome to his mother Aurora. How the sounds 
were produced has long been a matter of controversy : 
perhaps by the artifices of the priests, who in some 
hidden niche may have smitten the sounding stone with 
a rod of iron ; or by the passage through its chinks and 
crannies of light gusts and breaths of air ; or, not im- 
probably, by the sudden expansion of aqueous particles, 
enclosed within the solid mass, under the influence of the 
sun's rays.f 

* Miss Martineau, " Eastern Lite/' i. 305. 

t Dr. Richardson, 11 Travels along the Mediterranean and Parts Adjacent," 
ii. 41. 



TAMA AND CHAM A, 203 

During the annual inundation of the Nile these statues 
tower above the watery expanse like carved islands of 
stone. Anciently a dromos of eighteen similar statues 
extended to the Amunopheion \ and the river waters not 
overflowing so high as they do now, the entire avenue, 
with its solemn giants, must have stood upon elevated 
ground conspicuous from afar. The present height of 




THE COLOSSI DURING AN INUNDATION. 



the Pair is 53 feet above the soil, and the pedestals are 
sunk about 7 feet deep in the sand. From the elbow to 
the fingers' ends each colossal arm measures 17 feet 9 
inches ; and from the knee to the plant of the foot each 
leg measures 19 feet 8 inches. The foot was 9 feet 10 
inches long. The pedestal of Tama is 33 feet long by 18 
feet broad ; the throne, nearly 1 5 feet in height and breadth. 



204 



THE THO THMESEIOX. 



Continuing in a south-westerly direction, we reach the 
village of Medinet-Aboo, situated on a lofty mound com- 
posed of the ruins of the Thothmeseion — now choked 
with weeds, and frequented by the loathsome scorpion. 
And here we ought to remind our readers that, as every 
Christian church must have its chancel, so every Egyp- 
tian temple had its gateway — a pylon, or propylon — 
formed of two sloping, pyramidical towers, with a high 
perpendicular facade between. In this manner the temple 
and palace of Medinet-Aboo were each approached by a 
pylon : they were also connected by a dromos of statues. 
The temple was built by successive monarchs of the 
name of Thothmes ; but among the ruins are found 
inscriptions relating to Tirhakah, Nectanebus, Ptolemy 
Soter, and Antoninus Pius — each of whom, probably, did 
something for the decoration of this locality. 

Connected with the Thothmeseion by a dromos 265 feet 
in length, stands the Palace-temple of Rameses — the 
Southern Rameseion of Champollion — a structure of vast 
dimensions and surpassing splendour. It is upwards of 
500 feet in length ; while the cella (or nave) measures 
nearly 150 feet broad without the walls, which are liter- 
ally crowded with designs. In one place you see the 
coronation of the Pharaoh — the "visible God upon 
earth" of old Egypt. He sits on a canopied throne, 
borne along by his twelve sons. A grand procession 
follows of princes, priests, official personages, and sol- 
diers. A scribe is reading from a scroll ; the high-priest 
perfumes the air with incense ; a band of musicians per- 
forms triumphal music. The accompanying hieroglyphs 



THE SOUTHERN RAMESETON. 205 



explain that the king has assumed the crown of the 
Upper and Lower Kingdoms ; and carrier-pigeons fly to 
convey the news to the north, south, east, and west. 

Some vigorous battle-pictures illustrate the power of 
the great monarch. His scribes count out before him 




THE THOTHMESEION AT MEDINET-ABOO, THEBES. 

b 

numerous heaps of human heads, each heap containing 
three thousand. There are also piles of human tongues. 
In other places a naval engagement is represented 
between the Egyptians — whose galleys bear a lion's head 
at the prow — and some Asiatic people ; in others, towns 
are beleaguered by masses of struggling warriors ; in 



206 



TEMPLE OF MEDINET-ABOO. 



others, gorgeous processions celebrate some day of pecu- 
liar festivity ; and in all, the deities are introduced, 
approving and befriending the favoured race.* 

The Temple of Medinet-Aboo may be described as 
facing that of Luxor, on the opposite bank of the river ; 
while that of the Rameseion confronted the superb pile 
of Karnak. Hence all these magnificent structures 
formed so many stages or halting-places in the religious 
processions of the priests. Though the tabernacle of 
Amun was generally enshrined at Karnak,t yet every 
year it was carried across the river to remain for a few 
days in Libya ; and we can fancy what pomp and splen- 
dour of ceremonial accompanied this solemn transla- 
tion — how the hills and the plains resounded with harp 
and cymbal and song — and how the interminable train of 
priests and worshippers moved through the vast avenues 
of crio-sphinxes and colossal statues in a passion of 
enthusiasm ! % 

In the rear of the undulating area occupied by these 
various monuments of a vanished creed and empire — that 
is, from Gurneh to Medinet-Aboo — the Libyan hills for 
nearly five miles have been converted into a labyrinth of 
sepulchres, — into one immense and thickly -populated 
Necropolis. Here, in the lower ground, are interred the 
humble dead, along with the animals which they ac- 
counted sacred \ the papyrus-roll, containing ritualistic 

* Heeren, " Historical Researches," ii. 247, et sqq. 

t The triad, or three supreme gods, of Thebes were — Amun-Ra, or the Sun 
god ; Mant, the mother of all things — the Latona of the Greeks ; and Khonso. 
X Dr. Richardson, " Travels along the Mediterranean," ii. 94, 96. 



AN IMMENSE NECROPOLIS. 



209 



directions for the soul's guidance \ and corn, bread, fruit, 
bows and arrows, personal ornaments, boots, and the 
like; — so that the dead, when they awoke from their 
long sleep at the bidding of Osiris, might gaze upon 
familiar and favourite objects. Higher up, in the sacred 
solitude of the mountains, lay the noble and the wealthy, 
in richly-decorated tombs ■ their mummies carefully 

" Packed to humanity's significance" — 

their surroundings of the most gorgeous description. 
And still higher up, in two deep narrow gorges which 
strike into the very heart of the hills — one entirely shut 
in among them, the other opening up from the lower 
plain — are respectively situated the Tombs of the Kings 
and the Tombs of the Priests. 

Ascending the first of these two gorges, we find it to be 
the very ideal of desolation — bare rocks, before and be- 
hind and on either side, overhanging and enclosing you; 
rocks utterly bare, and without a strip of vegetation to 
relieve their dreariness. Such is the last resting-place of 
the Theban kings, and it is impossible to imagine a scene 
of more extraordinary wildness. 

Entering the sculptured portal in the face of the wild 
dark precipice, you find yourself in a long lofty corridor, 
which opens or narrows, as the case may be, into suc- 
cessive halls and chambers, all covered with a hard white 
stucco, and this stucco with colours as vivid now as they 
were thousands of years ago. Forty-seven were known 
to the ancients in the time of Diodorus ; twenty-one of 
these have been discovered by modern explorers, but 
only three are complete and perfect as when they re- 



2IO 



EGYPTIAN IDEAS OF DEATH. 



ceived their royal occupants — namely, those of Amun- 
ophis III., Rameses Meiamun and Rameses III. Some 
are much more magnificent than others; seven being, in 
truth, most gorgeous palaces, hewn out of the solid rock, 
and embellished with the richest decorations. Here " all 
the kings lie in glory, every one in his own house," the 
Pharaohs of Thebes, from the eighteenth to the twenty- 
first dynasty. 

It is needful the reader should bear in mind the 
peculiar tenets of the Egyptians, to understand the 
motive which induced the construction of these remark- 
able sepulchres. Death, to the Egyptian, was the portal 
of life ; of the Future in which he would receive such re- 
compense or punishment as the divinities saw fit to award. 
To the Egyptian king, who was regarded as of a semi- 
divine nature, it was a long, long sleep ; and when Osiris 
awakened him from it, his soul regained its body — its 
original tabernacle — and entered upon a career of un- 
clouded happiness in the companionship of his immortal 
ancestors. Hence it was requisite that the body should 
be preserved uncorrupted, and the tomb wherein it was 
enshrined carefully concealed from profane eyes or dis- 
turbing touch. 

Every Egyptian king began his reign by making ready 
his sepulchre, which was more or Jess magnificent accord- 
ing to the length of his reign, and which was imme- 
diately closed up at his death. Closed up, as the 
Egyptians fondly supposed, until the end of the world. 
Not only was the entrance sealed, but, in several cases, 
the approaches were cut in the most devious direc- 
tion, and so walled up as to give the appearance of a 



SIGNIFICATION OF THE SCULPTURES. 211 

termination long before you arrived at the actual burial- 
chamber. 

In the sculptures and decorative designs of the tombs 
we seem to recognize, as Dean Stanley points out,* two 
leading ideas : First, the attempt to reproduce, as far as 
possible, all the details of human life, so that the dead 
monarch, whether in his prolonged sleep or on his awaken- 
ing, might see around him the old familiar objects. 
Second, to conduct the king to the world of Death. And 
the further you advance into the great tomb, the deeper 
you become involved in continuous processions of jackal- 
headed gods and monstrous forms of good and evil 
genii • and the goddess of Justice, with her single ostrich 
feather; and barges carrying mummies across the sacred 
lake \ and, more than all, incessant convolutions of ser- 
pents in every possible form and attitude — human -leg- 
ged, human-headed, crowned — entwining mummies — en- 
wreathing or embraced by processions — extending down 
whole galleries, so that meeting the head of a serpent at 
the top of a staircase, you must descend to its very end 
to reach his tail. And at length you reach the close of 
all, the 7ie plus ultra, the vaulted chamber in whose 
centre lies the immense granite sarcophagus which once 
contained the body of the king. Here the processions — 
above, below, and around — attain their climax, their cul- 
minating point; meandering on every side and in all direc- 
tions — in white and black, and red and blue — legs and 
arms and wings spreading over roof and walls in enor- 
mous and fantastic forms. 

All these tombs, then, are interesting, all afford matter 

* Dean Stanley, " Sinai and Palestine," xliii,, xliv. 



212 



THE HALL OF BEAUTY. 



for meditation ; but our limits compel us to restrict most 
of our observations to one of them; and we shall select 
that which Belzoni explored with so much tact and 
energy, and whose occupant is supposed to have been 
Osirei, Seethee, or Sethos L, the father of Rameses the 
Great. 

The explorer, after descending a flight of ruined steps 
to a perpendicular depth of 25 feet, finds himself in a pas- 
sage whose walls are covered with inscriptions relative to 
Osirei. Xext comes another staircase, decorated with 
grotesque figures of genii, and leading into a second pas- 
sage or chamber, of large dimensions, very beautifully 
painted. Here we observe the emblems — a boat and a 
serpent — of Kneph, " the Spirit of the Supreme, which 
moves upon the face of the waters ;' ? and of Ptah, the 
patron or tutelary deity of the occupant of the tomb. 
Ten steps conduct us into another superb chamber, from 
whence you pass into the so-called " Hall of Beauty," a 
cell or apartment 24 feet by 13, richly embellished with 
sculptures and paintings — a species of Egyptian Pantheon, 
where all the gods and goddesses are met in solemn con- 
clave. The roof, which four square columns support, 
blazes with golden stars, and the walls are covered with 
processions of a curious character ; — an immeasurable 
serpent being carried on the shoulders of a train of per- 
sonages in one place ; and in another, four different 
groups appearing, each consisting of four persons of dif- 
ferent complexions : four red, namely, Egyptians ; four 
primrose-coloured, Asiatics ; four black, Nabasi or Afri- 
cans ; and four pale-yellow, with long flowing robes, and 
feathers in their hair, Europeans or Northmen. 



THE SARCOPHAGUS OF OSIREL 



213 



Proceeding further, the traveller enters Belzoni's "Hall 
of Pillars," 28 feet long by 27 feet broad, containing six 
huge pillars in two rows. On either side opens out a 
small chamber; one on the right, having the figure of a 
cow painted on the wall, is known as the " Hall of Isis " 
(10 feet by 9) ; that on the left, from its allegorical draw- 
ings, is named the " Hall of Mysteries" (10 feet 5 inches 
by 8 feet 9 inches). At the end of the hall we pass into 
a large saloon with an arched roof or ceiling, and measur- 
ing 32 feet long by 27 feet broad. Various passages and 
chambers lead out of it, which it is unnecessary to de- 
scribe ; but we may add, that the entire extent of this 
subterranean labyrinth penetrates the solid rock to a 
length of 320 feet.* 

Returning to the saloon, we may remember that it was 
here Belzoni discovered the sarcophagus of Osirei, f now 
one of the curiosities of Sir John Soane's museum. He 
describes it as made of the finest Oriental alabaster, 
9 feet s inches long, and 3 feet 7 inches wide. Its thick- 
"ness is only 2 inches, and a light placed in the interior 
lights it up like a transparency. Within and without, it is 
sculptured over with hundreds of figures, from one to two 
inches in height, representing the funeral procession, and 
religious ceremonies in honour of the deceased. 

Such are the places, says Miss Martineau, where, in 
the words of Isaiah, " the kings of the nations, even all 
of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house and 
such are the regions supposed by him to be moved at the 



* Belzoni, " Narrative of Operations," &c, i. 360-366. 

f The mummy, however, had been already stolen ; that is, if ever deposited in 
the sarcophagus. 



214 STORY OF A DECAYING CREED. 

approach of the tyrant, and to stir up their dead to meet 
him who has become as weak as they, and must now be 
brother of the worm, and be brought down to Hades, to 
the sides of the pit. From Egypt this mode of burial 
spread far over the East, and the caverns of the hills con- 
tained the successive generations of many peoples besides 
the Hebrews, who had, in their civilization, followed the 
ideas and methods of Egypt. In God's mysterious provi- 
dence, not only the forms spread, but the ideas which had 
suggested them. After the example of Egypt, men pre- 
served, amidst more or ]ess corruption, a belief in the 
Supreme God; in a divine moral government; in a future 
life; in compensation and retribution; and in that highest 
of all truths, that moral good is the greatest good, and 
moral evil the deepest evil. So from the Valley of the 
Nile this mysterious faith spread into many lands, dis- 
guised, but never wholly concealed ; working good in its 
generation — assuredly more good than evil — until, becom- 
ing incrusted with later superstitions, and its true mean- 
ing passing out of the memories of men, it was time that 
a purer and fuller revelation should be made, and the 
Star of Love appeared to the watchers in the East ! 

Before we quit this solemn spot, we must glance at the 
Harpers' Tomb, first mentioned by Bruce, and therefore 
often called by his name. It penetrates about 400 feet into 
the rock, and its small lateral chambers are decorated 
with glowing pictures of life in Ancient Egypt. Here, 
cooks knead bread or slaughter cattle ; there, gardeners 
toil in blooming parterres : here, walls are gay with arms 
and standards ; there, clothed in rich tapestry, and illu- 
minated with graceful lamps. The tomb obtains its dis- 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF EGYPTIAN LIFE. 



215 



tinctive appellation from the figures of ten harpers, play- 
ing before the god Ao, or Hercules. They are attired in 
white garments striped with red, and each carries a harp 
of ten strings.* 

The tombs of the Theban Pharaoh who reigned, it is 
supposed, in right of his wife Taosiri, and of the Pharaoh 
who pursued the migrating Hebrews to the Red Sea, have 
their peculiar features of interest. In the former, the king 
appears both as man and spirit, in his past and present 
conditions of being ; the scarabaeus, or sacred beetle, with 
head downwards, representing the resurrection by which 
the two are linked together. In the latter, the wide extent 
of the monarch's dominions is indicated by five lines of 
tribute-bearers — black, red, light and red, brown, and yel- 
low — offering gifts of ivory, apes, leopards, skins, gold, 
and other valuables. Some of its illustrations are important 



from the light they throw on the handicraft and industry 
of the Egyptians. You may see the masons, for instance, 
at work upon a monstrous sphinx, and chipping away at 
the huge granite blocks from which it is to be fashioned. 




r 



EGYPTIAN MASONS. 



,295) 




2l6 



THE ANCIEXT TOMBS 



The Tombs of the Priests are situated in the rocky 
gorge known as the Valley of Assasif ; and the largest is 
that of Petumenap, chief priest in the reign of Pharaoh 
Necho. Its winding galleries are covered with hiero- 
glyphics ; but the only figures which it contains are those 
of the priest and his wife, sitting side by side, with arms 
entwined around each other's necks. 

About three-quarters of a mile north-west of Medinet- 
Aboo are the Tombs of the Egyptian Queens, twenty-four 
of which have been discovered. Each bears the title of 
" Wife of Amun," as if the king had borne along with his 
own name that of the great god of Thebes, or been apo- 
theosized after death. The most perfect sepulchre is 
that of Taia, wife of Amunophis III. 

We now cross the Nile to what has been rightly called 
the " most magnificent spot in Egypt" — the eastern quar- 
ter of Thebes — Thebes proper — now partly occupied by 
the little Arab village of Karnak. 

When the French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, 
came in sight of the Theban monuments, they suddenly 
halted, and, in an ecstasy of admiration, clapped their 
hands and broke out into a loud shout ; as if, says 
Denon,* the end and object of their glorious toils, and 
the complete possession of Egypt, were achieved and 
finally secured by their having gained possession of its 
ancient metropolis. Here, in the silence and the solitude, 
lie the shattered memorials of an extinct civilization ; 

* Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon, born 1747 ; died 1825. He accompanied 
the French expedition to Egypt in the capacity of a savant; and in 1802 pub- 
lished a full account of his experiences and discoveries in his " Voyage dans la 
Basse et la Haute Egypte." 



AT KARNAK. 



memorials so grandly impressive, so sublimely beautiful, 
that, like Napoleon's soldiers, we are stirred by the spec- 
tacle as by the sound of a trumpet. Here, when the rest 




of the world, perhaps, was buried in darkness, the human 
intellect had ripened into an extraordinary maturity. 
Here, where the beetle crawls over the sunny rocks, or 



218 THE PALACE OF THE KINGS. 



in the twilight the bat flits among the ruined columns, 
the oldest of the world's monarchies placed its royal seat, 
and surrounded itself with an architectural pomp that 
is almost inconceivable. Here, too, a mysterious creed 
■ — a creed of dark enigmas and subtle symbolism, with 
a strange weird medley of the sublime and the grotesque 
— erected such temples as no other creed has ever 
dreamed of possessing ! It is a phantasmagoria, this 
Karnak ; or, rather, it is like a series of visions succeed- 
ing one another so closely that their various features 
become blended to the mind. 

Avenues of vast propyla^ or gateways, whose huge 
sculptures were painted in glowing colours, concentrated 
from all points of the compass upon Karnak, while a 
dromos of andro-sphinxes connected it with the quarter 
of the city now represented by Luxor. These are mostly 
in ruins. 

The principal structure at Karnak is the Palace of the 
Kings > which was approached by a remarkable avenue of 
crio-sphinxes, about seventy in number, each having a ram's 
head and a lion's body, and distant from the other eleven 
feet. The Palace itself has twelve principal entrances, 
each composed of several huge propyla and spacious 
courts. The gateway figured in the text consists wholly 
of granite, and is literally covered with exquisite hiero- 
glyphics. On both sides of these propyla were formerly 
planted colossal statues of granite and basalt, from 20 to 
30 feet in height, either sitting or standing erect. 

In examining the famous Palace, we enter first a spa- 
cious court, where two obelisks of Thothmes I. attract 
the attention ; one is in fragments, the other upright and 



THE HALL OF COLUMNS. 



219 




PKOPYLON AT KARNAK. 



uninjured. In the second, or Great Court, 275 feet 
broad by 329 feet long, were also two obelisks : the one 
remaining is 94 feet in height. Then we pass into the 
superb " Hall of Columns," which is 80 feet in height, 
and 329 feet long by 179 feet broad. Its roof is sup- 
ported by 134 pillars, — 12 in the centre, and 122 in the 
aisles ; the central each 66 feet in height, without their 
pedestals, and 11 feet in diameter, with an intervening 
space of about 27 feet. The side columns are disposed in 
seven rows ; they are 41 feet high, and 27 feet 6 inches 
in circumference. 

The sanctuary, or adytum, built entirely of red granite, 



GREAT COURT AND OBELISK OF KARNAK. 

consists of three apartments, of which the central, 20 feet 
long, 16 feet wide, and 13 feet high, is the principal. 
Three blocks of granite form the roof, which once shone 
with clustered golden stars in a sky of azure. In various 
parts of the Palace the most precious materials were 
employed for decoration, and cornices have been found in- 
laid with ivory mouldings or sheathed with beaten gold ! 
^ Dean Stanley has justly spoken of Karnak as the 
grandest building which the world ever raised to the 
glory and adoration of God, and he styles it the oldest 
consecrated place of worship in the world. But the 
reader must remember that it was also dedicated to 



A REFERENCE TO BIBLICAL HISTORY. 221 

secular purposes : it was not a temple only, but a palace ; 
and not only a palace, but a Champ de Mars, where re- 
views took place, and ambassadors were publicly received, 
captives executed or apportioned among their conquerors, 
and the spoils and honours of victory distributed. Reli- 
gious festivals were also held there, in which king and 
priests and people alike participated. 

One of the most interesting features of Karnak is the 
sculptured record, in a narrow corridor, of the conquest 
of Sheshonk — the Shishak of Scripture — first noticed by 
Champollion. It occurs, says Mr. Fairholt,* in the third 
line of a row of sixty-three prisoners presented by the 
agency of the god Amun-Ra to Sheshonk ; who thus, as 
usual with the Egyptian kings, attributes his victories to 
Divine interposition. Each figure, or rather semi-figure, 
has his arms tied behind him, a rope round his neck, and 
is placed upon a turreted oval indicative of a walled 
city, within which the name is inscribed. In this instance 
it is Judah Melek — the " King of Judah," the Rehoboam 
of Scripture, who was defeated by Sheshonk: this, we 
may add, is the only direct illustration of Biblical history 
afforded by the monuments of Egypt, though indirect 
illustrations abound. 

In addition to the magnificent group of halls, courts, 
columns, and gigantic statues at which we have thus 
cursorily glanced, various propyla and portions of temples 
are to be seen south of the Great Hall. On either side 
the pyla of one of the courts lie the remains of four enor- 
mous Ramessid statues hewn out of limestone or granite. 
They all wear sculptured belts, most richly and beauti- 

* Fairholt, " Up the Nile," p. 324. 



222 



THE CRIO-SPHINXES. 



fully wrought. One is armed with the sacred breast- 
plate. Mr. Aveling, a recent traveller, measured the 
latter figure, and found it to be 6 feet across the chest ) 
the middle figure was 10 feet broad, with arms 8 feet long. 

A row of ninety crio-sphinxes, or more, leads south- 
ward from the temple to which these colossal statues 
belong — running parallel to the one which follows the 
direct road to Luxor, and connected with it by a narrow 
avenue crossing at right angles. One sphinx, in a group 
found here, has a woman's head, with features beauti- 
fully expressive both of power and gentleness, and wearing 
that aspect of profound repose with which the old artists 
loved to represent their deities and kings.* 

Further details of the wonders of Karnak — of its obe- 
lisks and statues, and pyla and propyla, all involved in 
mournful ruin, but all attesting the intellectual supremacy 
of the men who designed them so far back in the world's 
dim history — would perplex rather than interest the 
reader. He will already have pictured to himself this 
scene of splendid desolation, and formed some idea of 
the majesty of Egyptian achievement. Across the plain 
— following the grand dromos of andro-sphinxes, 40 feet 
wide, once traversed by the sumptuous processions of 
priests, and kings, and worshippers — the solemn avenue, 
once alive with toiling thousands, and brilliant with the 
works of a subtle art and an exhaustless industry — we 
move onward, in thoughtful silence, to EL-UKSOR,t or 

* Rev. T. W, Aveling, "Voices of Many Waters." 

t The distinguished traveller, Mr. W. G. Palgrave, has the following remarks 
on these interesting localities :— "Luxor, Karnak, Kornah, Rameseum, Medinet- 
Abou, and the intervening ruins, all belong to one and the same huge city, 



THE TEMPLE AT LUXOR. 



225 



Luxor, where the mud hovels and paltry buildings of an 
Arab village strangely jar with the remains of its ancient 
grandeur. 

Here a vast and splendid temple stands on the rising 
ground, commanding a fine view of the Nile and the 
Theban plain. In approaching it from the north — the 
most convenient route — the first notable object is a 
superb propylon, 200 feet long, with its summit 57 feet 
above the present level of the soil. Two of the finest 
obelisks in the world formerly guarded, as it were, the 
portal of this noble pile; but one has been removed to 
the Place de la Concorde at Paris; the other lies deeply 

the Thebes of Egypt. Within historical memory the site was yet one, not 
divided as now; for the Nile, instead of flowing west of Luxor and Karnak, thus 
separating one half of ancient Thebes from the other, followed a much more 
easterly course under the mountains by the Red Sea side, leaving the Libyan 
plain wide and unbroken. Indeed, it is said to have adopted its present direc- 
tion only two centuries since. Now ploughing up the mid-level, and wandering 
as at random among the ruins, it undermines some, tilts up others, and will pro- 
bably sweep not a few clean away — Luxor, for example. A few thousand years 
more and Herodotus and the Ghizeh Pyramids will probably alone remain to 
vindicate for Rameses and his brethren the eternity they sought to secure by so 
much labour and costly forethought. 

"The situation of Thebes, as the river formerly ran, was admirably adapted 
for a capital of that time ; a noble plain, nowhere wider or richer in Upper 
Egypt, constantly refreshed by the free play of the winds from north, east, and 
west, closing in southwards only ; while direct land communications lead on one 
side to Koseyr, that ancient arbour and deposit of Arab commerce ; and on the 
other to the great oasis of the ' Wah,' once of Jupiter Ammon, and thence right 
to Central Africa: north and south passes the great liquid and ever open road of 
the Nile. We should remember that in the days, those ancient days, when 
Thebes flourished, the staple trade of Egypt lay all with Africa and Arabia ; at 
a much later date, Greek influence and the growing importance of the Mediter- 
ranean coast brought down the capital towards the Delta, and ultimately fixed 
it at Alexandria, on the northern shore. But Greece only entered Egypt to 
degenerate, and to help Egypt to degenerate in turn ; the best days of the Nile 
Valley were certainly the earliest." — From "A Visit to Upper Egypt," by 
William Gifford Palgrave [Macmillan's Magazine, Jamiary 1867). 



226 



AN ANIMATED SCULPTURE. 



embedded in the sand, a monolith of red granite, between 
seven and eight feet square at the base, and upwards of 
80 feet in height. The hieroglyphics which embellish it 
are cut with unusual distinctness to a depth of nearly 
two inches. In the rear of the obelisks, and immedi- 
ately in front of the propylon, stand two colossal statues, 
or Ramessids, also of red granite. Though buried in the 
ground to the chest, they still measure about 22 feet 
from thence to the top of their mitres.* 

The eastern wing of the northern fagade of the propy- 
lon is enriched with an animated sculpture of a crowded 
battle scene. So truthful is it, and so minutely accurate, 
that as one sees the shock of contending squadrons, and 
the rush of the furious chariots, one almost hears the 
clash of swords, the twang of whirring arrows, and the 
shouts of maddened foemen. The king rises above 
the melee in a car drawn by two horses ; behind 
him waves the royal standard. Here, the empty 
chariots are swept by the uncontrolled steeds down a 
precipitous descent, and headlong into a rolling river; 
there, the charioteers are rushing towards the walls of the 
town, flying from the arrows of the victorious Egyp- 
tians. Others are crowding through the open gates, 
amid the shrieks and lamentations of the despairing 
citizens, who have thronged to the battlements to witness 
the defeat of their fellow-countrymen. Everywhere the 
scene is instinct with life, energy, and movement. The 
battle rages before your eyes with all its alternations of 
hope and despair, the swift charge, the confused retreat. 
It is a kind of Homeric picture embodied in vivid colour- 

* Wilkinson, " Modern Egypt and Thebes," vol. ii., in locis. 



THE THEBAN TERRITORY. 



229 



ing. And, to close the drama, you see in another com- 
partment the conqueror enthroned, with a sceptre in his 
left hand, and before him a sad array of captives about 
to perish under the headsman's sword \ while the van- 
quished monarch, with his arms bound behind him to a 
car, also approaches to receive his doom. 

Passing through this noble portal, we enter a ruined 
portico of very large dimensions ; from which a double 
row of seven columns, with lotus-wreathed capitals, con- 
ducts us to a court 160 feet long by 140 feet wide, ter- 
minated on either hand by a similar range of pillars. 
Beyond lies another court of thirty-two columns ; and 
then comes the adytum, or inner sanctuary of the temple. 
Some antiquaries have been of opinion that here, and not 
at Karnak, should we look for the " palace of Osyman- 
dyas" described by Diodorus ; and it is also a point of 
dispute whether the true Diospolis is Karnak or Luxor. 

Before we quit the site of the once-famous city, we think 
it desirable to add a few words respecting the Theban 
territory, or the Thebaid, the modern Sais or Pathros, and 
one of the three principal divisions of Egypt. On the 
east it was bounded by the Arabian, on the west by the 
Libyan hills and desert ; north, it extended to Hermopolis 
Magna, south to Syene (or Assouan). Its vegetation is 
of a tropical character ; the sycamore giving place to the 
date-palm and the Theban-palm, and the lotus spreading 
its blue and white cups on the waters. Anciently, it was 
divided into ten nomes, and ten halls in the Labyrinth 
were therefore appropriated to their princes. 

For the most part the Thebaid, as Mr. Donne remarks, 
was, and is, a narrow valley, intersected by the river and 



230 THE THE B A ID AS IT IS. 

bounded by a double row of hills ; hills, bold, lofty, and 
precipitous on the Arabian side ; on the Libyan, of lower 
elevation, and intersected by sandy plains and valleys. 
The desert on either bank produces only a dwarf vege- 
tation of shrubs and. herbs, which emit a slight aromatic 
odour. The cultivable soil is restricted to a narrow 
belt on each side of the river, whose glowing verdure 
contrasts agreeably and strikingly with the brown dry hue 
of the surrounding wilderness. The breadth of the Nile 
Valley never exceeds eleven, and is frequently reduced 
to two miles. 

Of the present appearance of the Thebaid, however, a re- 
cent traveller speaks in more eulogistic terms.* He says 
that no pleasanter ideal can be imagined of " a summer 
land." The purple Desert mountains here narrow in the 
valley, and enclose a landscape of tropical character and 
extraordinary fertility. Even to the edge of the sandy 
waste all is growth. You wander through fields of maize 
and millet, and between bright flanking patches of yel- 
low-blossoming cotton, amid thickets of ricin and mea- 
dows of flowering poppy. The heart rejoices in the 
clustering palm -groves, which whisper of peace and 
plenty ; and from the midst of their lustrous bloom the 
eye may range over acres of sunny' cornfields, whose rich 
wealth of produce waves in the very neighbourhood of 
the eternal barrenness. How glorious must have been 
the landscape when, in the old time, amidst all this bloom 
of fertility, rose the marble palaces, the " shapely obe- 
lisks," and the gigantic statues, in serenely -perfect 
beauty ! 

* Howard Hopley, "Under Egyptian Palms," pp. 221, 222. 



CHAPTER I. 

ESNEH THE ALMEHS, OR DANCING GIRLS 'EILYTHIA: 

THE ROCK TOMBS — EDFOO, AND ITS TEMPLE SIL- 

SILEH, AND ITS QUARRIES — KOUM OMBOS. 

Et viridem Aegyptum nigra faecundat arena, 
Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora. 

Virgil, Georgics, iv. 200. 

And where the stream . . . 

Broods o'er green Egypt with dark wave of mud, 
And pours through many a mouth its branching flood. 

Sotheby. 

IDDING farewell to Thebes and its Monu- 
ments, we resume our voyage up the Nile. 

The first point of interest above Thebes is 
Erment, the Hermonthis of the Greeks, about 
six miles from Medinet-Aboo. Here the traveller may 
profitably devote a few hours to an examination of the 
ruins of a temple founded by Cleopatra, and to the 
smaller temple, or "lying-in chamber" of the goddess 
Leto. Of the former the shattered remains indicate a 
comparatively debased style of architecture, but no 

(295) 16 




232 



THE ANCIENT CROCODILOPOLIS. 



opinion can be formed of its general plan and character. 
The latter is also in a dilapidated condition ; all the 
columns but one of the outer court have disappeared ; 
only a few are extant of those of the hall : the ancient 
shrines, consisting of two small chambers, support with 
their massive walls the residence of the sheikh of the 
village, while the entire ruin is encumbered by the mud 
huts of the villagers and a plain mosque.* Near at hand 
are the remains of a Christian church, belonging to the 
period of the Lower Empire ; and measuring, according 
to Wilkinson, 190 feet in length by 85 feet in width. 

Gebel-Ain, supposed to be the site of the ancient Cro- 
codilopolis, is the next striking object on which the eye 
of the traveller rests. It starts up from the level plain 
with a curious resemblance to the Gibraltar Rock. Just 
beyond, a large island of sand is described as a favourite 
haunt of crocodiles, which bask here in the hot sun. 
attended by their little feathered monitor, the Ziczac, or 
Charadarius spinosus (Spur-winged plover). This, the 
trochilus or " crocodile bird " of Herodotus, is said to 
live upon the leeches which adhere to the crocodile's 
throat, and to give his friend due notice of any hostile 
intruder. 

Mr. Fairholt, whom we have already quoted, states 
that he has certainly seen the plover busied about sleep- 
ing crocodiles, and clamouring at any boat's approach, 
in a sufficiently loud manner to waken them, and teach 
them that their only safety was in flight. The real solu- 
tion of the story, he adds, seems to be very simple. The 
bird is attracted to the crocodile by the flies and insects 

* Fairholt, " Up the Nile,'" p. 331. 



TEMPLE OF GEBEL-AIN. 




THE TROCHILUS, OR CROCODILE BIRD. 



which settle about it; and its own alarm at the presence 
of man induces the cries which are imagined to be 
entirely for the benefit of its supposed friend, 

We now arrive at Es?ieh, or Isna. on the west bank, 
in lat. 2 5 30', where our attention is called to the noble 
ruins of the temple once sacred to the ram-headed deity, 
" Noum " or " Kneph," who presided over the work of 
creation. With the exception of the twenty-four columns 
and roof of its portico, or pronaos, the temple is buried 
deep in sand and earth. But these columns are well 



234 



THE DANCING-GIRLS. 



worth studying for the beauty and significance of their 
sculpture,* which belongs to a late period of Graeco- 
Egyptian or Aegypto-Roman art (a.d. 41-70) — the names 
of Tiberius, Germanicus, and Vespasian occurring in the 
dedicatory inscription over the entrance, and those of 
Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus in the interior. The 
figure of Ptolemy Euergetes is found on the wall, fol- 
lowed by a tame lion, and in the act of striking down an 
antagonist. It would seem that the present temple was 
raised on the site of an older sanctuary. 

Esneh was the ancient Latopolis, or Lato, and derived 
its name from the fish Lato, the largest of the Nilotic 
species, which always appears among the symbols of the 
goddess Neith (or Pallas). t Its present population ex- 
ceeds 4000. It is the head-quarters of the Almehs^% or 
dancing-girls, who inhabit various squalid huts upon the 
shore, to which the voyager's curiosity almost invariably 
attracts him. If he resolves, as we shall do, on paying 
them a visit, his dragoman acts as guide and interpreter, 
and introduces him into the interior of some particular 
hovel, which he has selected as a suitable theatre for the 
performances. Here, in the middle of the apartment, 
he finds the dancers assembled ; usually young and well- 
made women, but without any pretensions to personal 
beauty. They wear a scanty vest, open at the bosom ; 
large silken pantaloons fastened round the waist by an 
embroidered girdle ; and an inner tunic of flesh-coloured 
gauze or tulle. The feet of some are naked ; of others, 



* Denon, "Voyage en Egypte," vol. i., p. 148. 

t The triad of Isneh was composed of Neith, Kneph, and Hak their son. 
+ They were banished hither from Cairo in 1834 by the late Mehemet AIL 



THE DANCE OF THE ALMEHS. 



235 



thrust into long loose slippers, red or yellow ; collars 
sparkle round their necks, bracelets round their wrists, 
and a band of medals on their foreheads, while theii 
long hair is frequently adorned with golden coins, and 
bound up with a silken kerchief. 

The dance commences with a series of graceful atti- 
tudes, and these are succeeded by a variety of animated 
gestures and rapid movements, swiftly culminating in the 
eloquent expression of unbridled passion • the dancer, 
meanwhile, preserving the bust immovable, while the 
remainder of her body is agitated almost to frenzy. 

After the performance olives and liqueurs are served 
around, and the spectators prove their satisfaction by a 
liberal distribution of largess. 

A recent French traveller* has observed that these 
days of profit are not, however, very numerous, and that 
if the Almehs dance in the winter, they have no motive 
to sing in the summer. The population among whom 
they dwell cannot afford to pay them for the exercise of 
their talents ; while they themselves, skilful enough in 
attitude, gesture, and motion, are wholly unfitted for 
work, and hence fall into the power of usurious money- 
lenders. 

They pass their time in smoking tobacco, and in drink- 
ing aqua vitae (a kind of anise-seed), and the everlasting 
coffee. 

Owing to the difficulties of this wretchedly precarious 
existence, the number is daily decreasing of these Almehs, 
who, in the days of the Mamelukes, abounded through- 
out the length and breadth of Egypt. Esneh is now 

* Cuminus, "Voyage en Egypte," in Tour du Monde, 1863, p. 211. 



236 



AN EGYPTIAN MARRIAGE. 



their last asylum, as, undoubtedly, it was their cradle. The 
sisters of the bayaderes of India, and of the colleges of 
priestesses consecrated to the service of Mylitta or of 
Venus, they anciently performed their fantastic dances 
before the shrine of Neith, the patron goddess of Esneh, 
the primarchial and prolific divinity, mother, wife, and 
sister of Amun. There may still be seen, in the centre 
of the town, at the base of an ascent which is lined with 
mummies, the beautiful pro?iaos of the Temple of Neith, 
transformed into a granary. Elevated by the Romans 
on a foundation of venerable ruins, the different portions 
of the edifice are covered with ill-wrought sculptures ; 
but the portico is a noble construction, and the columns 
are tall and shapely, with richly wrought capitals of plants 
and flowers. 

In this neighbourhood the reader will be disposed, 
perhaps, to obtain a glimpse of the social life of Egypt, 
and to officiate at an Egyptian marriage in the capacity 
of spectator. It cannot be said that the ceremonies 
attending it, at least among the fellahs, are of a very 
complicated description. It is not, as with us, a public 
act, sanctioned by the church and attested by the law. 
When the intending bridegroom and the parents of the 
intended bride have agreed upon the sum which the former 
is to pay — for the bride brings no dowry — they proceed 
to celebrate the nuptials before two witnesses. Some- 
times notice is given to the cadi, but this formality is by 
no means indispensable. In such a union, with no ulte- 
rior guarantee, there is little happiness or safety for the 
wife : she is no more, in truth, than a bought slave ; nor 
can she claim a divorce except under very extreme cir- 



THE PREPARATORY BANQUET. 



237 



cumstances. The birth of the children is never regis- 
tered j and consequently, during their earlier years, their 
condition is sadly precarious. Often, indeed, they fall 
victims to the envy or vengeance of one of their mother's 
rivals. 

But let us suppose ourselves invited to the marriage 
of a fellah. A great tent is erected, according to custom, 
before the house of the betrothed, and for the last two 
days it has been the rendezvous of her and her future 
husband's friends, who have passed the time in smoking, 
and feasting, singing, laughing, gesticulating, and talking. 
At length the hour of prayer having arrived, the bride- 
groom repairs to the neighbouring mosque, attended by 
all the kinsmen and acquaintances who have been hon- 
oured with an invitation : on his return a banquet is 
served. To us, as Europeans, every dish is in turn 
presented \ but anxious though we may be to do honour 
to our host, an ill-cultivated taste compels us to reject 
them, and to content ourselves with a few thin wheaten 
cakes. All the female friends of the bride have had a 
share in the preparation of this cuisine, and it is allowable 
to conclude that their joy has had an effect upon the 
sauces. We can hear them laughing and singing within 
the house. 

In the evening the guests march through the town in 
procession, their ranks swelled en route by all the idle of 
the population, and men with flaring torches stalking 
by their side. It is a complete illumination ; almost 
everybody seems to carry torch or taper; and a rich 
neighbour has lent one of those magnificent Oriental 
lustres, which are perfect trees of iron, embellished with 



ROCK-TOMBS AT 'EILYTHIA. 



glass tubes reflecting and glowing in the flames. And 
strange is the scene to European eyes as the light plays 
over and upon the noisy surging crowd, communicating 
a dazzling freshness to the vivid colours of their hoods, 
and vests, and girdles. Meanwhile the bridegroom, 
unattended, has entered the house where his betrothed 
with her kith and kin await him : after a brief interval 
he comes forth, accompanied by the women (who certify 
the perfect purity of the young girl), and proudly plants 
himself against the wall. Then, amid loud shouts, and 
discharges of musketry, the guests defile before him, 
everybody congratulating him, and placing in his hand 
a few pieces of money. This agreeable part of the cere- 
mony being concluded, the husband re-enters the house, 
and again sallies forth bearing his young bride in his 
arms. Followed by his friends he seeks his own dwelling, 
and after some further ceremonies the bridal festivity 
terminates. 

At 'Eilythia,* or El-Kab, about twenty miles beyond 
Esneh, on the eastern bank, we meet with a curious group 
of rock-tombs of the third period ; that is, immediately 
after the expulsion of the Shepherds. Their decorations 
furnish some valuable glimpses into that inner life of Old 
Egypt of which we have already spoken. We see the 
people at work in the fields, and busy on the river, and 
merry in their houses. f This is no vision rising from the 
depths of a conscious imagination. We have it all before 
us in vivid colours painted on the rock. Under our very 
eyes, as it were, the ploughman is furrowing the fertile 

* The Eiliethyias, or " City of Lucina." of the ancients, 
t Miss Martineau, " Eastern Life: Present and Past." 



THE OLD LIFE REVIVED. 



239 



soil \ and the sower, scattering the seed, follows in his 
footsteps ; and then come the labouring oxen which bury 
the grain by trampling it in ; so that afterwards the hus- 
bandman has only to await quietly the time of harvest. 
The driver of the oxen treading out the wheat is singing ; 
and here is his song, written up beside his picture : * — 

" Thresh for yourselves, O oxen! 

Thresh for yourselves. 
Thresh for yourselves, O oxen ! 

Thresh for yourselves. 
Measures for yourselves ! 

Measures for your masters. 
Measures for yourselves ! 

Measures for your masters." 

We can imagine this to be the lay which the Egyptian 
drivers chanted long ago, when Moses was a child. 
The scribes, meanwhile, are measuring the wheat as it is 
deposited in the granary; and the owner of the estate is 
surveying his live stock, his cattle, and his pigs, like a 
midland county squire. Yonder is a wine-press at work, 
crushing out the purple grapes which ripened in sunny 
vineyards far away among the distant hills. And now a 
boat passes by, with bright-coloured sail and steady oars ; 
while, after his water-excursion, the master betakes him- 
self to a sumptuous banquet — flesh, and fowl, and fruits, 
and cakes, and wine from his own vineyards — all, as you 
may note, to the sound of merry music. But like those 
bright lyrics of the poet Horace, which begin so blithely 
and end with so sad a strain, these pictures of a full and 
vigorous career terminate in darkness. You see the 
wealthy land-owner and noble in the hands of the em- 

* Champollion, " Lettres sur l'Egypte," nme et i2me lettres, 



240 THE JUDGMENT OF OSIRIS. 

balmers ; next, as a mummy, stretched upon the bier 
which the sacred boat carries across the Silent River ; 
and, lo, now he tarries at the gates of the Eternal Land, 
where the shadows of the dead, and the judge, awful 
Osiris, sit in solemn majesty to pass sentence upon the 
deeds done in the flesh. 




JUDGMENT OF SOULS, AND THEIR FUTURE DESTINY. 
(From the Sarcophagus of Alexander.) 



It should be noted that all the female figures in these 
frescoes are painted yellow, and all the male red. 

The next point of interest for the Nile voyager is 
Edfco, two miles above El-Kab, on the west bank of the 
river. 

Edfoo is the Apollinopolis Magna of the Greeks, which, 
under the Roman emperors, was a bishop's see, and the 



TEMPLE OF EDFOO. 



241 



head-quarters of the Legio Secunda Trajana. It had 
formerly been regarded as the capital of the Apollonite 
nome, and its inhabitants were avowed enemies of the 
crocodile and crocodile-worshippers. 

The ancient city owed its reputation to two temples, 
remarkable for their extent, massiveness, and grandeur of 
architecture. The smaller of the two is, however, but a 
kind of appendage to the larger \ its sculptures represent 
the birth and education of the youthful Horus, to whose 
parents — Noum (or Kneph) and Athor — the larger temple 
was dedicated. 

Speaking of the larger temple — which was founded by 
Ptolemy Philometor, about B.C. 171 — Mr. Bartlett says: 
It stands on rising ground not far from the river; and, as 
the external wall with which it is surrounded is entire, 
affords an admirable idea of the vast size and solid mag- 
nificence of an Egyptian temple in its perfect state, when 
it served no less as a fortress and a palace for the sacer- 
dotal class than as a place for the solemn rites of religion. 
The sanctity of the scene, however, is impaired by the 
wretched village of mud hovels, swarming with ragged 
fellahs, which has risen among the gigantic ruins.* 

The entrance consists of a noble propylon, 50 feet 
high, flanked by two converging wings, in the form ot 
truncated pyramids, each 107 feet high, 100 feet long, 
and 30 feet wide. They contain ten stories, and are 
pierced with loop-holes for the admission of light and 
air. Their exterior walls are enriched with bold and 
vigorous sculptures of singularly felicitous design. Hence 
we proceed into a large court, surrounded by a colon- 

* W. H. Bartlett, " The Nile Boat," p. 199. 



242 



EXTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE. 



nade, with a flat roof of squared granite; and on the op- 
posite side stands a pronaos^ or portico, 53 feet high, and 
having a triple row of six columns, whose carved capitals 
belong to the Ptolemaic era. This leads into a vestibule; 
and through two courts, one roofed and one open, we 
pass into the adytum , or sanctuary. There are also 




TEMPLE OF NOUM AND ATHOR, AT EDFOO. 



eighteen small lateral chambers. The entire area is sur- 
rounded by a solid wall, 20 feet in height* Recent 
explorations, conducted by M. Mariette, have revealed 
the whole of this fine building, including its great hall 
and sacred shrine of red granite, to the visitor s curious 
investigation. 

* Sir G. Wilkinson. "Modern Egypt and Thebes." pp. 436-438. 



THE ROCK OF THE CHAEY. 



243 



Passing the romantic ruins of the Arab town of 
Booayhj we continue our voyage through a succession of 
rich, bright, and picturesque landscapes, until we arrive 
at the pass of Hadjur Silsileh (Gebel Silsilis), or " the 
Rock of the Chain;"* its banks consisting of lofty and 
abrupt precipices that descend to the margin of the 
waters, and shut them up in a very narrow channel. 
Here the voyager lands to explore the grottoes excavated 
in the face of the crag, some of which belong to a remote 
antiquity, and record, in their hieroglyphic inscriptions, 
the triumphs of the early Pharaohs over their Ethiopian 
enemies, f Of greater interest, however, are the Silsileh 
quarries of sandstone, whose vast excavations might lead 
one to suppose that the whole world had been supplied 
from this spot with building materials for its nobler edi- 
fices. They give one a keen idea of the industry and 
persistent toil of the Egyptians; for only generation after 
generation of diligent labourers could have accomplished 
such enormous works. For an extent of several miles 
the mountain has been cut, by the hand of man, into 
yawning chasms and lofty menacing precipices, which, in 
their dimensions and picturesque variety of outline, seem 
to mimic the designs of Nature. As the stone nearest 
the river bank is of a porous character, and not well 
adapted for architectural purposes, passages were cut 
through the useless strata into the very heart of the rock. 
Several of these artificial avenues are nearly half-a-mile 

* So named from a tradition that an ancient Egyptian sovereign was wont to 
impede the passage of the river at this point by stretching across it a chain, and 
laying a toll on every vessel. 

t W. H. Bartlett, "The Nile Boat," p. 200. 



244 



HISTORY IN STONE. 



in length, by 50 or 60 feet wide, and 80 deep. Many 
large masses remain as the workmen left them, and the 
marks of their tools — made three or four thousand years 
ago — are plainly visible. From the crosses painted in 
different places, it is supposed that the persecuted Chris- 
tians afterwards sought shelter in these labyrinths; and 
very suggestive is this juxtaposition of the emblems of 
Christianity with the memorials of an earlier faith. 

The rock-hewn temples on the western bank are less 
gigantic, but more interesting; and the traveller wanders 
amazed among a mass of pillars, grottoes, tablets, niches, 
statues, sculptures, and paintings. Here the victorious 
Pharaoh — Hor-em-heb, successor of Amunophis IV. — 
rides down the vanquished Ethiopians, receives the 
trembling captives, or drags them by the hair, threaten- 
ing them with instant execution. There we see him 
borne in a shrine on men's shoulders, with files of soldiers 
in attendance, and' the lion, emblematic of his power, 
pacing beside the royal chariot. In another place, he 
receives the symbol of life from the supreme god. 

The historian, as Miss Martineau observes,* revels 
among such memorials as these. The invariable practice 
here of sculpturing the names and titles of the kings, and 
often of their chief officers, and the descriptions of the 
people conquered, and the names of the votaries as well 
as of their gods, makes research a self-rewarding effort. 
How would the English archaeologist rejoice if such relics 
existed of the aborigines of his own country; or the clas- 
sical antiquary, if equally permanent and accurate infor- 
mation had been graven on the rock to light up the dim 

* Miss Martineau, " Eastern Life : Past and Present," i. 266. 



THE RELIGION OF OLD EGYPT. 



245 



uncertain annals of Old Rome ! But not less interesting 
is this written — this sculptured history — to the moralist 
and the poet. It shows how sacred a labour temple- 
building was considered, when the very quarries were 
dedicated to the gods. We cannot venture to doubt the 
sincerity of belief of the ancient Egyptians; and may be 
pardoned for wishing that religion made as intimate a 
part of our daily life as it did of theirs. Call it supersti- 
tion, if you will; yet was it a superstition that inculcated 
a high morality, and nourished as true and vivid a con- 
ception of the Supreme as, perhaps, man ever attained 
without the help of a revelation from on high. The 
Egyptians looked upon their children as given by the 
gods; led them in bands to the temples, that at an early 
age they might worship and pray; invoked at their ban- 
quets the blessing of the Judge of all things ; presented 
their triumphs and achievements as sacrifice to the celes- 
tial powers; and hallowed their great work of temple- 
building — which seems to have been the main purpose of 
their lives — by " making the very rocks holy which were 
to furnish the material." Here, at Silsileh, a great as- 
sembly of the gods accept the offerings of the kings. 
Savak is the deity of the place ; but the god Nilus holds 
a higher rank than usual, either because the river here 
pours through the rocky pass with so much fulness and 
force, or because much of the stone cut for far-off temples 
was intrusted to the charge of Nilus for transport. 

Some of the tablets are lettered with inscriptions of 
historical importance, and especially with a record of 
certain assemblies held in various years of the reign of 
the great Rameses, The object and nature of these 



246 



AT KOUM OMB OS. 



assemblies have not yet been ascertained. They had 
either a religious or a political character. All we know is, 
that they were held in the great halls of the temples, and 
were considered of such high importance, that the title of 
"President of the Assemblies" was bestowed upon the king 
alone on earth, and was supposed to be not unworthy of 
the gods in their own mysterious realm. * 

Passing through the Silsileh defile, we emerge upon a 
broad and open valley, whose gently-ascending slopes are 
clothed with palm groves. Here is situated the village 
of Koum Ombos (or Kom Umboo), supposed to represent 
Ombi, the ancient capital of the Ombite nome, or pro- 
vince, and celebrated in all ages for its magnificent 
temples. 

The facade of the principal one, which crowns the 
summit of a sandy hill, consists of a portico of fifteen 
columns, five in front, and three deep, thirteen of which 
are still standing. It was rebuilt by the Ptolemys on 
the site of an edifice which dated from an early part of 
the third period, and dedicated to Arveris (Apollo) and 
the other gods of the Ombite nome.t 

A common architectural device of the Egyptians may 
here be advantageously studied. They regularly dimin- 
ished the size of their inner chambers, so as to give, from 
the entrance, the appearance of a longer perspective than 
really existed. They built on an ascending ground, dis- 
guising the ascent by flights of extremely shallow steps. 

* Sir Gardner Wilkinson, " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," 
v. in loc. 

f Hamilton, " Aegyptiaca," p. 35 ; Champollion, " L'Egypte," i. 167. 



AX ARCHITECTURAL DEVICE. 



247 



The roof was constructed with a still greater inclination, 
which was concealed by the introduction of deep archi- 
traves and large cornices. The sides were made to draw 
in, so that the appearance which a building exhibits on 
paper, when represented in perspective, the Egyptian 
temples had in reality. Thus the adytum, sanctuary or 




TEMPLE OF ARVERIS AT KOUM OMBOS. 



holy place, was invariably small; but to the worshippers, 

who looked on from the further chambers, it seemed not 

small, but remote; and this remoteness invested it with 

an air of awful solemnity. The effect, indeed, when 

viewed through a long vista of sculptured columns and 
1295; ^ 17 



248 



EXTENSIVE RUINS. 



painted walls, must have been singularly imposing* must 
have far exceeded any of the dramatic contrasts which 
obtain in the Roman Catholic ritual. 

The other temple, built on an artificial platform at the 
north-western angle of the enclosure, was erected in the 
reign of Ptolemy XII. and Cleopatra (about 50 B.C.),* and 
dedicated to the goddess Isis or Athor, with whose visage 
the capitals of the columns are adorned. The sculptures 
on the walls are very numerous, and even now, after the 
lapse of nearly twenty centuries, retain their brilliancy of 
colouring. So extensive are the ruins of Koum Ombos, 
that it seems difficult to believe they could have been 
effected by any other agency than an earthquake ; or 
that, at least, Nature began the destruction which 
human barbarism has completed. The people of Ombos 
were worshippers of the crocodile, and hence were fre- 
quently at war with the men of Denderah, who hunted 
the monster. Of one of these conflicts a vivid descrip- 
tion occurs in the fifteenth chapter of Juvenal 

* Hamilton, " Aegyptiaca," pp. 34-36. 




CHAPTER II. 

ASSOUAN, OR SYEXE — ITS ANCIENT CELEBRITY — ITS QUAR- 
RIES — ISLAND OF ELEPHANTINE — TEMPLE OF KNEPH 
ISLAND OF PHILAE — TEMPLE OF ISIS — OTHER ME- 
MORIALS — SACRED CHARACTER OF PHILAE — ITS 
TRIAD : OSIRIS, ISIS, AND HORUS. 

Amid the foaming breakers' silvery light, 
"Where yon rough rapids sparkle ! 

Moore. 

It seemed as she was doing sacrifice 

To Isis, deckt with mitre on her head, 

And linnen stole after those priestes guize .... 

For that Osyris whilest he lived here 
The justest man alive and truest did appear. 

Spexser. 

""HE approach to Assouan — which lies on the east 
bank of the river, about thirty miles south of 
Koum Ombos — is through a scene of romantic 
beauty. The Nile, bending abruptly, broadens 
into a kind of bay, which is shut in by the green and lovely 
island of Elephantine, whence an early dynasty of 
Egyptian kings derived their name. The high bold 
rocks which rise on every hand seem like the boundaries 
of a lake. On the left, nestling under rocky crags, whose 
summit is crowned with ruins, lies the modern village ; 




250 THE GATE AT THE FRONTIER. 



in the distance, the yellow sandy hills are covered with 
remains of Saracenic architecture. To the right, the 
shattered walls of a convent mark the crest of a sand- 
stone eminence; and all around, between the desert and 
the river, the palm-groves cluster in verdurous masses. 

The word " Assouan " is the Coptic souan or suan, an 
" opening," with the addition of the Arabic el, or " the," 
softened into es or as* The town so called lies on the east 
branch of the Nile, near the frontier of Nubia, no miles 
south of Thebes, in lat. 24 5' 23" north, and long. 32 5 5' 
east. Of old, this position was strategetically important; 
was the watch-tower on the frontier between Egypt and the 
south ; the most commanding point near the First Catar- 
act, which, though no very formidable obstacle to modern 
navigation, must have been a serious obstruction before 
the great depression of the bed of the Nile. Syene, as 
it was called by the ancients, was the depot of the mer- 
chandise which passed between the north and the south. 
Here were the quarries whence much of the Egyptian 
building-stone — that peculiar kind of marble still known as 
syenite — was drawn. A Nilometer stood here, to record 
the rise of the great god Nilus. Temples at Elephantine 
ministered to the religious wants of strangers and natives. 
There was a garrison in the time of the Persians, and 
again in the days of the Greeks, and Roman and Sara- 
cenic fortifications still lie in ruins on the heights around. 
Thus, on this frontier spot, the evidence is abundant that 
successive races prized it as the important " Opening " 
which its name declares it to be — the " Gate " through 



* The word is supposed to be derived from Sunn, an Egyptian goddess, the 
"Ilithya'' or " Opener" of the Greeks, 



THE ISLAXD OF ELEPHANTINE. 251 



which the fertilizing floods of the Nile broke into the 
land of Egypt. 

The view from the environing rocks is very striking — 
a view of hill and water, wood and lowland : and beyond, 
the confused and blown heaps of the rolling sands of 
the Desert. The river hurries past in a succession of 
rapid eddies and foaming whirls. In their midst lie 
various black-coloured islets, marking the boundary of 
the Cataract; and nearer at hand, and in a more tran- 
quil reach of the stream, rises the beautiful Elephantine. 
Ruin, however, is written in gigantic letters on the entire 
scene. The island of Elephantine looks as if it had been 
ravaged by an earthquake, scarcely one stone being left 
upon another of all its once famous edifices. In a hol- 
low of the wilderness lies the great cemetery, each grave 
with its memorial-tablet inscribed in Cufic letters. The 
hoary walls of the Saracenic fortress on the one hand, 
and of the Christian convent on the other, preach the 
same striking lesson of mutability. 

At a short distance from the village, on the opposite 
bank of the Nile, are situated the celebrated Quarries 
which furnished the colossal structures of Egypt. The 
excavations, says a modern traveller,* are on a scale 
proportionate to the vast works they were destined to 
construct, and the solid rocks have been hewn out like 
so much clay. 

The wedge, that most ancient of building tools, was 
the potent instrument in rending each adamantine mass. 
The dimensions of the required block were marked out 
by wedges, which, being wetted, duly expanded, and the 

* G. Melly, " Khartoum, and the Blue and White Niles." 



252 THE OBELISK AND THE COLUMNS. 

rock, split asunder, yielded up the rough material for a 
column or a god. And the grooves and notches made 
by labourers who died thousands of years ago, in pre- 
paration for works which were never carried out, may 
still be seen ! So, too, the idle or playful scratches which 
amused a leisure hour or a joyous mood. So, too, a 
variety of rude inscriptions, referring to hewn blocks, or 
commemorating the victories of the kings, as if the glad 
tidings of triumph awoke a feeling of national enthusiasm 
from Thebes to Syene. All seems, says Mr. Melly, as 
if it were the creation of yesterday • as if the artificers, 
called off by some emergency, had but just left their 
mighty labour. Yonder lies an unpolished obelisk, 
ninety or a hundred feet long, and ten feet broad, wait- 
ing for those final touches which it shall never receive !* 
The excavations are said to have been arrested when the 
Persian Conquest swept, like a destroying simoom, 
through the Nile Valley. And so the huge columns 
moulder in the sand, and there is none to provide for 
their removal or completion. The old creed has vanished, 
and its shrines are the resort of curious pilgrims from re- 
mote lands which the worshippers never knew of. 

Here the problem again suggests itself to the observer, 
How were such stupendous masses removed to so great 
a distance as Thebes % The appliances employed for 
their transit remain a mystery. Certain it is, that the 
task would prove of very great, insuperable difficulty to 
modern engineers. It would seem that most, if not all, 
of the blocks were conveyed to their destination by land. 
But how? Herodotus relates that two thousand men 

* Hamilton, " Aegyptiaca," p. 105. 



THE GOOD GENIUS. 253 

were employed for three years in the removal of one 
block.* Yet the colossal structures of Thebes were 
mostly erected within a comparatively limited period, 
and consist of innumerable blocks. How could men be 
found, in a population generally estimated at four or five 
millions only, to toil in these quarries, to transport the 
material to distant sites, to build the temples and palaces, 
to design and embellish and perfect them, while all the 
time an advanced civilization made other demands upon 
labour, and wars were conducted, and extensive con- 
quests made, and agriculture and commerce also claimed 
their thousands and tens of thousands? 

The island of Elephantine is rich in architectural re- 
mains, though, unhappily, they are all in a sadly dilapi- 
dated condition. f In the midst of a vast field of bricks, 
and fragments of baked earth, a column or two stand as 
a memorial of the ancient Temple of Noum, or Kneph, 
the good genius — he who, of all the Egyptian Pantheon, 
approaches nearest in his attributes to our ideas of the 
Supreme Divinity. J All the ornaments are accompanied 

* Among the Egyptian paintings is the representation of a colossus drawn on 
a sledge by one hundred and seventy-two men, who are ranged in four rows of 
forty-three each. In one respect ancient and modern expedients were alike. 
An individual stands on a leg of the image, and claps his hands for a signal to 
the team of men to pull together. When the single piece of granite, weighing 
twelve hundred tons, which forms the pedestal to the equestrian statue of Peter 
the Great at St. Petersburg, was drawn to its site, a drummer was placed on 
the top of the huge block to perform the same service. — Quarterly Review, 
No. ccxl., p. 430. 

t The temples were destroyed in 1822, by Mohammed Bey, to build a palace 
at Assouan. 

t Some authorities contend that .this temple was dedicated to Khnum, the 
god of the waters, and his colleagues, Anouke and Sate. It was founded by 
Amunophis III., and embellished by Rameses III. See Denon, "Travels in 
Upper and Lower Egypt," ii. 30-36; Hamilton, " Aegyptiaca," &c. 



254 



PHIL A E, THE UNAPPROACHABLE. 



by the serpent, symbolic of eternal and pre-eminent 
wisdom. A statue of red granite, with the Ramessid or 
Osiride emblems, has also escaped destruction ; and the 
lower portion of the Nilometer. There is also a granite 
gateway of the time of Alexander; and near it lie some 
slender and broken pillars, which, as one of them bears 
a sculptured cross, evidently belonged to a Christian 
church. Other memorials of interest have rewarded the 
research of travellers : numerous fragments of pottery, 
bearing receipts in the Greek language for taxes paid by 
the farmers in the reigns of the Antonines ; and part of 
a calendar recording the rise of the Dog-star in the time 
of Thothmes III. (1445 B.C.), — that is, three thousand 
three hundred and sixteen years ago. 

Elephantine (or Elephantina) was anciently called 
Abu, or the " Ivory Island," and was the depot of the 
large traffic carried on in that costly product. From 
hence the Greek mercenaries in the pay of Psammeti- 
chus I. were despatched in search of Egyptian deserters ; 
and in successive eras it was garrisoned by the Persians, 
Greeks, Romans, and Saracens. It gave the fifth dy- 
nasty of kings to the throne of Egypt. 

From Assouan it is customary for the Nile voyager to 
make a pilgrimage, beyond the First Cataract, to the 
Holy Island of Philae (<£tW) — the " Unapproachable" 
(afiaros) — which marks the extreme boundary of Upper 
Egypt. 

The footprints of an elder race are here, 

And memories of an heroic time, 

And shadows of the old mysterious faith ; 

So that the isle seems haunted, and strange sounds 

Float on the wind through all its ruined depths. 



THE NAMELESS ONE. 



2 55 



" By Him who sleeps in Philae !" — such the oath 
Which bound th' Egyptian's soul as with a chain 
Imperishable. Ay, by Amun-Ra. — 
The great Osiris, — who lies slumbering here, 
Lulled by the music of the flowing Nile. 

Ages have gone, and creeds, and dynasties, 
And a new order reigns o'er all the Earth ; 
Vet still the mighty Presence keeps the isle — 
Awful, serene, and grandly tranquil he, 
With Isis watching — restless in her love ! 




DISTANT VIEW OF THE ISLAND OF PHILAE. 



Philae was called by the Egyptians Menlak, - : the Place 
of the Cataract:'' or Menuab, "'the Sanctuary/' It is 
a small rock of syenite, about 1250 feet long, and 400 
feet broad. * 

Philae proper, or the larger island, has always excited 

* There are really, as the name indicates, two islands, but the smaller one is 
of no importance. They are situated in lat. 24" X., at about six miles from 
Assouan, and just above the First Cataract. 



256 



OPINIONS OF TRA VELLERS. 



the admiration of the traveller. Mr. Curzon speaks of 
it in rapturous terms. Every part of Egypt, he says, is 
interesting and curious, but the only place to which the 
epithet "beautiful" can be correctly applied is the island 
of Philae. Eliot Warburton characterizes it as the most 
unearthly, wild, strange, and lovely spot he ever beheld. 
No dreamer of the old mystical times, when beauty, 
knowledge, and power were realized on Earth, ever 
pictured to himself a scene of wilder grandeur or more 
perfect loveliness. For all around the traveller tower up 
vast masses of gloomy rocks, piled one upon the other 
in wildest confusion ; — some of them, as it were, skeletons 
of pyramids \ others requiring only a few strokes of giant 
labour to form colossal statues that might have startled 
the Anakim. Here spreads a deep drift of silvery sand, 
fringed by rich verdure and purple blossoms \ there, a 
grove of palms, intermingled with the flowering acacia \ 
and there, through vistas of craggy cliffs and gloomy 
foliage, gleams a calm blue lake, with the Sacred Island 
in the midst, green to the water's edge, except where the 
walls of the old temple-city are reflected. 

It is true, however, that Dean Stanley speaks of it as 
more curious than beautiful. From this disparaging 
statement we should infer that the Dean made but a 
cursory inspection of it, for a recent traveller, admitting 
that at first he was somewhat disappointed with the 
island, acknowledges that on closer acquaintance he 
became one of its most devoted admirers. There is, he 
says, a grace and loveliness attached to Philae pre-emi- 
nently of all Nile views ; the chief charm, nevertheless, 
being in the island itself, as seen from a little distance, 



THE SACREDNESS OF PHIL A E. 



257 



lying so picturesquely and calmly in the very midst of 
the river, which is shut in here by perpendicular black 
granite rocks : it is the contrast of the fertile, sunny 
island, with the stern, rugged iron-bound precipices which 
tower above it \ so that in connection with Philae there 
always rises up in the mind a picture of perfect repose, 
and of nature in its most smiling aspect.* 

To the ancient Egyptian, Philae was simply the 
sacredest spot upon Earth, — what Mecca is to the Mos- 
lem, or Calvary to the Christian. The most solemn 
oath that he could utter was, " By Him — the Un-named 
and Un-nameable — that sleeps in Philae." It was the 
resting-place of his god of gods, of the all-powerful 
Osiris, of the supreme divinity, whose singular love for 
Egypt was manifested in the yearly overflow of the great 
river. Therefore it was considered profane for any but 
priests to approach it ; and men believed that, in awful 
reverence for its sanctity, no bird flew over it, no fish 
drew near its shores. These, however, were the tradi- 
tions of an early age, when the religion of Egypt was a 
real and living creed. At a later period it became a 
favourite resort of pilgrims to the tomb of Osiris ; and 
an inscription on an obelisk removed to England by Mr. 
Bankes shows that the priests petitioned Ptolemy Phys- 
con (b.c. 1 70-1 1 7) to prohibit officials and public per- 
sonages from visiting the island, and living there at their 
expense. 

It is a curious fact to be noticed, in reference to Philae, 

* Compare Curzon, " Monasteries in the Levant;" Eliot Warburton, "The 
Crescent and the Cross;" Dean Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine;" the Rev. A. 
C. Smith, "The Nile and its Banks ;" and Hamilton, " Aegyptiaca." 



258 



A TEMPLE OF OSIRIS. 



that peculiar effects of light and shade are produced by 
its vicinity to the Tropic of Cancer. As the sun ap- 
proaches the northern boundary of its course, the shade 
thrown by the cornices, mouldings, and projections of 
the temples creeps lower and lower down their granite 
walls, until, when the orb of day attains its highest point 
of elevation, these walls are invested in deep, dark sha- 
dows, which present an almost weird contrast to the 
intense glow that lights up the surrounding landscape. 

The surface of the island may, without exaggeration, 
be described as strewn with ruins, like the sea-shore after 
a storm. This wide-spread desolation seems to have 
been effected by the Persians, who, defied in their de- 
structive efforts by the massive edifices of Karnak and 
Luxor, found here a more suitable field for their bar- 
barian rage. The most ancient thing on Philae is the 
shattered Temple of Athor (Aphrodite), built in the reign 
of Nectanebus (b.c. 38 1-363). The other remains be- 
long, for the most part, to the reigns of the Ptolemys, 
Philadelphus, Epiphanes, and Philometor (b.c. 282-145); 
and numerous inscriptions show that the sacred struc- 
tures were repaired and restored by the Roman emperors 
down to the epoch of Claudius (a.d. 54). After the 
introduction of Christianity, Philae still preserved a 
reputation for sanctity. Some of the adyta bear traces of 
having been adapted to Christian worship ; and among 
the ruins are those of a Christian church. 

The triad to whom Philae was sacred were Osiris, 
Isis, and Horus. 

The principal temple was dedicated to Osiris. From 
the river-bank it was approached by a double colonnade, 



I 



WITHIN THE WALIS. 




HORUS, ISIS, AND OSIRIS. 



which terminated with two colossal lions of granite, and 
a couple of obelisks, each 44 feet in height. The 

columns differed each 

from the other in the sculp- 
tured foliage of their capi- 
tals, which represented the 
indigenous vegetation of 
the country, — palms and 
tobacco, water-plants and 
acacias. Through the co- 
lossal propylon, its lofty 
pyramidal towers graven 
all over with mysterious 
allegories, the worshipper 
passed, and between the 
solemn sphinxes, into an open court surrounded by 
columns ; and thence, through another pylon, into the 
pronaos, — an area reminding the modern traveller of 
a convent cloister. Beneath the shadowy arcades on 
either side, loaded with hieroglyphic carving, various 
doors lead down into dim chapels and chambers. The 
porch, entered by a third pylon, is of a solemn character, 
spanning the whole breadth of the building, overshadowed 
by heavy cornices, and bearing the mystic emblem of 
supreme divinity, a winged globe, blazoned in azure. 
It is supported by a twofold range of gigantic columns, 
whose capitals even now are dazzling with their rich 
bright hues.* 

A lofty doorway opens from the portico into the sekos, 
or adytum, in each corner of which formerly stood a 



* Howard Hopley, " Under Egyptian Palms," pp. 290-292. 



262 



7S7S E VER V IV HERE. 




TEMPLE OF OSIRIS AT PHILAE. 

monolithic shrine,* the cage of a sacred hawk, and 
whose walls are covered with emblems. Here, in the 
thickness of wall or buttress, secret staircases lead to 
chambers in the roof ; the surface of every passage, how- 
ever narrow or apparently insignificant, being wrought 
into devices of genii, and beautiful with the serene, 
sublime face of Isis. 

Mr. Hopley describes in graphic language his explora- 
tion of a chapel, small as an attic, situated in the roof 
of the western corridor. He came upon it, he says, at 



* One of the^e is now in the Louvre at ParK the other in the Museum at 

Florence. 



THE RESURRECTION CHAMBER. 263 




TEMPLE COURT AT PHILAE. 



hazard, after wandering over the whole of the temple, 
between the massive blocks which, at different heights, 
roof in transepts, vestibule, and adyta. Egyptologists 
call it the " resurrection chamber," from the sculptures 

205 18 



264 



THE TEMPLE OF A THOR. 



on its walls representing the death and resurrection of 
Osiris. It stands in a sunny nook. Seven stairs, 
flanked by a smooth groove, adapted, apparently, for 
the descent of a coffin, lead down to its entrance. You 
bend your head, and pass in. There is no need of 
torches or tapers, for the light through a loophole breaks 
on the pictured walls. The subject is treated in succes- 
sive stages. You see women weeping about the bier of 
the dead Osiris : anon the scene changes — winged 
figures, like cherubim, stand at the head and foot, as if 
on guard, and shelter him with their overspreading 
pinions ; then the soul, symbolized as a bird, hovers 
and flutters over the motionless body ; — hush ! life is 

stealing into the throbbing veins a leg, an arm 

moves. Thus, in many gradations, and through a series 
of impressive pictures, the theme is carried on ; until, at 
length, on the furthest wall, fully robed and mitred, the 

god stands manifest Osiris, the living, the supreme, 

the eternal, bearing, in hands crossed over the breast, 
the sceptre and the flail, as emblems of power and 
judgment.* 

On the left hand of the entrance into the principal 
court, we should add, is situated a small temple or chapel, 
dedicated to Athor. It is profusely embellished with 
sculptures depicting the birth of Ptolemy Philometor, 
under the figure of the god Horus, and its inner cham- 
bers with symbolic carving illustrative of the mysteries of 
the Egyptian worship. 

Its sculptures, however, have been grievously muti- 
lated ; the evil being due, in the first place, to the relig- 

* Hopley, " Under Egyptian Palms," p. 296. 



ALL ABOUT OSLRLS. 



265 



ious zeal of the early Christians, and afterwards to the 
fanaticism of the so-called Iconoclasts. 

At the southern extremity of the dromos of the Great 
Temple stands a smaller temple, supposed, by some 
authorities, to have been consecrated to Isis, and vul- 
garly called "Pharaoh's Bed." Its portico consists ot 
twelve columns, crowned with the head of that goddess. 
The capitals are finely carved with the doum leaf, the 
flower of the lotus, and the palm branch ■ and every inch 
of surface glows with exquisite colouring, which, owing to 
the dryness of the atmosphere, preserves its original lustre. 

A few words, in conclusion, may be offered, perhaps, 
in explanation of the sacred character and attributes of 
Osiris. He is reputed to have been the son of Seb 
(or " Saturn") by Nu (or " Rhea"). He was the brother 
and husband of Isis (" Ceres," or " the Moon") by whom 
he had Horus (" Apollo"), and in some instances seems 
identified with the Sun or the Creative Power. The 
later myths record that he became king of the Egyptians, 
to whom he taught agriculture and the art of making 
wine ; that he afterwards travelled over the world, every- 
where extending the influence of civilization \ and that, 
meanwhile, his kingdom was ruled over by Isis, who re- 
pressed the ambitious designs of Typhon (" Satan," " Sin," 
or the " Evil Principle ") the brother of Osiris. Typhon, 
however, persuaded seventy-two persons to join him in a 
scheme for the murder of his brother, which, on the 
return of the latter, was successfully carried out; but in 
the shadow-world Osiris was restored to life, and the im- 
portant office was assigned to him of judging the dead 
and ruling over the spirits of the blessed. 



266 POWER OF THE SUPREME JUDGE. 

His names were numerous, like his attributes. He 
was called Onnophris, or " the meek -hearted ;" the 
" Manifester of Good," because he appeared on Earth to 
benefit mankind; " Lord of Lords;" "Lord of the 
East;" " King of the Gods;" but in his most sacred 
and mysterious office, and as superior to every other 
deity, his name was forbidden to be mentioned. When 
Herodotus has described the lamentations and self-chas- 
tisements which formed part of the sacrificial rites at the 
feast of Isis, he says that it is not permitted him to tell 
in whose honour these took place. He invariably speaks 
of Osiris by allusion, and never by name.* In the earlier 
and purer days of the Egyptian worship, Osiris repre- 
sented the Universal Goodness of the Supreme Being, 
all whose several attributes were afterwards personified 
as separate deities for or by the common people. It was 
believed that he quitted his celestial throne and assumed 
a human form, but without becoming human, for the 
benefit of mankind ; that on Earth he was vanquished 
by the Power of Evil ; that he rose again to conquer 
Evil by his resurrection ; and that he was then appointed 
Judge of the Dead and Lord of the Celestial Region. 

He was adored by all Egypt, not only for his benefits 
to man, but because he was the only manifestation on 
Earth of the One Supreme God. For this special reason 
he was made superior to the eight great gods, after whom 
he ranked on other accounts. It must always remain a 
mystery how the Egyptians supposed his manifestation 
to have taken place in the form of. humanity without 
adopting its nature. 

* Herodotus, book ii. 



THE CENTRE OF LIFE. 



267 



But when we speak of Osiris as the only manifestation 
of the One God upon Earth, we mean the only mani- 
festation made by a supernatural power ; for, otherwise, 
all living beings, in the creed of the Egyptians, as in the 
philosophy of Pantheism, emanated from the Source and 
Centre of Life.* The very worm beneath the sod, the 
insect that sported its little hour on a blade of grass, the 
mighty hippopotamus, and the huge behemoth, had thus 
a common origin and a mutual bond. It was from 
Egypt, in all probability, that Pythagoras derived that 
doctrine of the metempsychosis, which afterwards spread 
through the civilized world. It accounts for the peculiar 
observances with regard to animals which prevailed in 
Egypt. As Porphyry observes, it was the teaching of 
the Egyptians that the Divinity entered not only the 
human body, but that of the beast ; and that the soul, 
while on Earth, dwelt not in man alone, but passed in a 
measure through all animals. 

r But if all life was thus linked with its Creative Prin- 
ciple, Osiris, nevertheless, was the only one of the sons 
of the Supreme who had revealed Him to man, and there- 
fore was justly worshipped above them all. As the 
highest illustration of his goodness, he was naturally 
identified with the peculiar blessings of old Egypt — with 
the annual overflow of the Nile, and the consequent 
fertility of the land. Hence arose the fable that his 
body was deposited in the Cataract, whence he arose 
once every year to enrich the glad Earth with his mea- 
sureless bounty. Hence, too, he came to be called the 



* Sir Gardner Wilkinson. "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," 
iv. 187-189. 



268 



THE GODDESS ISIS. 



founder of agriculture ; or, more poetically, the eldest- 
born of Time and cousin to the Day. 

As Osiris was cousin to the Day, the " kinsman of 
Light and Morning," so his murderer, Typhon, was the 
god of the Eclipse, of " Darkness and the Shadow" — 
that is, the personification of Evil. He was in hateful 
league with Antae, or the Desert ; a myth which, in 
the course of ages, suggested that world-wide beliet 
in an eternal struggle between the powers of evil and 
good, which we trace in the Ormuzd and Ahri- 
man of the Persians, as well as in other Oriental 
creeds. 

Isis was the sister and wife of Osiris. The Egyptians 
called her Hes, daughter of Seb (or " Chronos") and Nu 
(or "Rhea"). On the monuments she is variously styled 
the "Mistress of Heaven," the "Regent of the Gods," the 
" Eye of the Sun." She would seem to have been the 
prototype of Ceres or the Moon, though at a later time her 
attributes, under the name of Athor, somewhat resembled 
those of the Greek Aphrodite ; and her worship was 
accompanied by certain mysterious rites known only to 
the initiated. A veil always hung before her shrine, which, 
said the well-known inscription, " None among mortals 
have ever lifted up;" typifying, perhaps, the inscrutable 
course and deep secrets of Nature. Sometimes she re- 
presented the land of Egypt, as Osiris did its fertilizing 
river, the Nile. She was also his colleague in the solemn 
judgment of the dead, and in this office suggested to the 
Greeks their Hekle or Hecate. Her infant, Horus, or 
Childhood — the emblem of reproduction — was also 
adopted by the poets and priests of Hellas, who con- 



ASSOCIATIONS OF PHILAE. 



269 



verted him into Harpocrates, the " god of silence," with 
his finger ever pressed to his lips.* 

Such were the deities to whose mysterious worship 
Philae, the Holy Island, was solemnly dedicated : and it 
still seems haunted, even in this utilitarian age, by the pres- 
ence of the mighty triad. The whole island is not above 
fifty acres in size, but, as Eliot Warburton remarks, it is 
richer, perhaps, in objects of interest than any spot of 
similar extent in the world. And just as the great alle- 
gorical religion of Egypt has a deeper significance and a 
broader meaning than the fanciful myths of Greece, so 
should Philae possess, for the student of philosophy, a 
higher interest and a stronger charm than the fabled birth- 
place of the Cyprian goddess or the oak-groves of Do- 
dona. 

* Sir Gardner Wilkinson, ut ante, iv. 3*7, 321, 367, 384, ct in he. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FIRST CATARACT HOW ITS ASCENT IS ACCOMPLISHED 

— THE SHEIKH AND HIS MEN. 

The Nile ! the Nile ! I hear its gathering roar : 

No vision now, no dream of ancient years — 
Throned on the rocks, amid the watery war, 
The king of floods, old Homer's Nile appears. 

Lord Lindsay. 

HILE directing the reader's attention to the 
antiquities of Syene and Elephantine, we con- 
sidered it convenient to include in the survey 
those of the island of Philae ; but the reader 
must bear in mind that while the former are below, the 
latter is above the First Cataract. To continue our river 
voyage, therefore, we must return to Assouan, and pre- 
pare for our ascent of the rapids. 

Just beyond lies Birbe. a sort of river-port for the 
upper Nile, where it is worth while for the traveller to 
land and climb the neighbouring heights, if he have any 
taste for the picturesque. From these he will obtain a view 
of Philae, which will long live in his memory, and often, 
in after-times, rise upon him like a vision of the beautiful. 

The ascent of the Cataract, when the waters are low, 
is a matter of difficulty rather than of danger. In fact, 




AT THE FIRST CATARACT 



271 



as already stated, it is not a cataract, but a rapid y caused 
by the sudden compression of the river into a narrow 
rocky channel," obstructed by numerous masses of crag 
and stone, which vex the waters into many a swirling 
eddy. To drag the boat against the impetuous stream, 
and to avoid these little islands of rock, the assistance is 
secured of an important official, known as the Sheikh of 
the Cataract,* who brings with him from forty to fifty fol- 
lowers — swart, athletic Nubians, all naked but for a white 
turban on their heads, and a cincture of cotton round 
their waists. Of these, a portion take possession of the 
dahabeeyah, while the remainder are posted at those 
points on the lofty bank where their services will be more 
immediately required. 

The commencement of the Cataract has been ex- 
pressively described as a complete archipelago of granite 
rocks, some red, others black, and all shining in the sun, 
as though highly polished, with various torrents rushing 
between them in all directions. These rocks are of the 
most extraordinary forms ; now awful, now grotesque ; 
they look as ancient as the Earth itself — the very skele- 
tons of the antediluvian w T orld. On the western bank 
the sands of the Great Desert, yellow as gold, and broken 
by the action of the wind into rolling waves, descend to 
the water's edge, interspersed with great masses of black 
basalt ; on the east, crag rises above crag in such chaotic 
confusion that one can only suppose the scene to have 
resulted from some volcanic explosion. f 



* There are 'or were) four of these Sheikhs — Hassan, Ali, Suleiman, and Ibra- 
him. 

f Mrs. Romer, " Templet and Tombs of Egypt," &c, i. 169, 170. 



272 BEGINNING THE ASCENT. 

The northerly breeze, which almost always prevails in 
this part of Egypt, carries our boat through the intricate 
archipelago to the base of the Cataract, and we moor it 
to the rocks while preparations are made for our ascent. 
The scene now commends itself to the artist's eye : — 
enormous masses of dark stone lie around in every direc- 
tion ; the foaming river whirls and scurries through every 
fissure and ravine; innumerable swarthy demon -like 
figures — like those in " Don Giovanni" — hurry to and 
fro among the rocks, upon the sands, upon the deck of 
the dahabeeyah, or amid the seething waters ; the Sheikh, 
with his long robes floating in the wind, takes his stand 
on a vantage-point where he can overlook the whole 
transaction ; a stout English rope is made fast to the 
main-mast ; the Nubians cling to it with a vice-like grasp ; 
u Yallough ! Wallah !" a mighty shout, and away we go 
up the hill of water which forms the first stage of the 
Cataract. 

It is over ! and our amphibious attendants take a quiet 
breathing pause. The Sheikh gesticulates, " Yallough ! 
Wallah!" and again they set to work. Now we hang 
suspended on the very ridge where the waters seem to 
hesitate ere they plunge below ; another pull ; a long 
pull, and a strong one ; " Yallough !" one more pull, and 
the second fall is safely passed. After a short space we 
move on, over a quiet reach of the stream, to the third 
and most difficult stage of the rapid — called El Bab, or 
" the gate " — where the Nile hurls the whole volume of 
its waters between two towering cliffs. 

Now, indeed, the Sheikh appears fully equal to the 
responsibilities of his position. He flings off his encum- 



THE VOYAGE ACCOMPLISHED. 



273 



bering robes, and stands forth stripped of everything but 
his drawers \ his turban even thrown aside, and the long 
Mussulman tuft of hair that crowns his shaven head 
" floating like a horse-tail in the wind." His gestures and 
his ejaculations are ceaseless and violent. His followers 
seem animated with Herculean vigour. They shout and 
they strain; they dart hither and thither; they jump 
upon the rocks ; they leap into the waters : now they 




FIRST CATARACT OF THE NILE. 



fend off the quivering boat from some dangerous crag ; 
now they tug lustily at the straining rope ; the cries of 
" Yallough ! Wallah !" are redoubled, and replied to from 
the shore by shouts of " Haybe sah !" — " God help you I" 
— a minute, and another — we are half buried in foam 
and spray ; and now, hurrah ! we have surmounted the 
dreaded Cataract, and ride triumphantly on the tranquil 
river. We bid adieu to the Sheikh and his trusty men, 



274 



CROSSING THE BOUNDARY. 



take our own crew on board, and with swelling sails glide 
through the portal of gloomy rocks that shuts in Ethiopia 
from the world. * Egypt is left behind us ; that strange 
and mysterious land of Art, Religion, and Literature ; the 
land of Osiris and Isis \ the land of the Pyramid and 
the Sphinx \ of Memphis, and Thebes, and Heliopolis ; 
the mother of countless nations ; the fountain of Greek 
philosophy and science ; which inspired the lore of 
Athens and the subtle policy of Crete ; which, long be- 
fore Greece and Rome had a name and a habitation, 
possessed all the graces of intellectual life, all the secrets 
of a penetrating wisdom ; — Egypt, the cradle of human 
history and human knowledge, whose solemn memories 
surround it with an imperishable glory ! 

" Whose shrines and palaces and towers, 
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not !) 
Resemble nothing that is ours." * 

We have passed the First Cataract, and have entered 
Nubia ; the Sacred Island remains with us now only as a 
dream \ the river grows narrower and more rapid ; the 
cliffs, of a dark red, encroach more and more upon its 
channel ; rich leafy glens open up wild glimpses of the 
Nubian Desert ; a tropic sky burns overhead ; the hot 
rays are thrown back from the gleaming waters and the 
naked rocks like blazing swords ; and right glad is the 
traveller when he comes to an anchor in the cool evening 
off the large town of Kalabsche ! Here, then, we may 
find it convenient to put together a few geographical 
notes upon the country we have just entered. 



CHAPTER I. 




NUBIA : ITS BOUNDARIES AND EXTENT ITS ANNALS — 

CHARACTER OF ITS INHABITANTS NATURAL RE- 
SOURCES — PRINCIPAL TOWNS. 

Where rippling wave and dashing oar 

The midnight chant attend ; 
Or whispering palm-leaves from the shore 

With midnight silence blend. — Keble. 

HE name " Nubia," or " Nubah," seems to have 
been derived from the Egyptian and Coptic 
noub, or " gold," which we still find extant in 
the Wady Nouba, a valley on the frontiers of 
Dongola. It was known to the ancients as Ethiopia, 
though the exact limits comprised under that appellation 
cannot now be determined. Generally speaking, it in- 
cluded all the west bank of the Nile from Meroe to the 
" Great Bend," and was supposed to be a happy and 
fertile region, peculiarly favoured by the gods. In the 
" Iliad," Thetis informs Achilleus that 

'* Zevs yap err' wieeavov /xer' a<j.vfxovas Ai^iOTr^as.' '* 
" Jove is to a solemn banquet gone 
Beyond the sea, on Aethiopia's shore." 



Homer. " Iliad," lib. 



123 — Earl of Derby's translation. 



276 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NUBIA. 



The ignorance which prevailed in reference to all the 
African interior was favourable to the growth of such 
poetic conceptions \ but a closer acquaintance with the 
Nubian deserts scarcely induces the modern traveller to 
acquiesce in the ancient fables. The only fertile por- 
tions are the great plains in the immediate vicinity of the 
Nile, which undoubtedly, in former times, inundated, 
and consequently enriched, a wider extent of country 
than it does at present. 

Modern Nubia may be considered to extend from 
Philae, above the First Cataract, to Sennaar, in i8° north 
latitude. It thus comprises a kind of valley or hollow, 
bounded on the west by the sands of the Great Desert, 
south by the uplands of Abyssinia, north by Egypt, and 
east by the Arabian Gulf. Under the Pharaohs it was 
called Kesh, or Cush, and was ruled by a viceroy entitled 
Prince of Cush or Ethiopia, until it regained its inde- 
pendence and was governed by its native rulers. These 
appear to have invaded and subjugated Egypt, and to 
have extended their sway from Meroe to Syene, which 
marked the limits of the possessions of the Ptolemys 
and the Romans. Meroe became the seat of a power- 
ful empire, and the emporium of the commerce of India, 
Libya, Carthage, Arabia, and Egypt. A severe blow 
was dealt to its prosperity by the Persian Cambyses, who 
conquered it about 530 B.C. After the destruction of 
Thebes, however, numbers of its inhabitants fled to 
Meroe, which again waxed strong and rich, and assumed 
a markedly Egyptian character. In the reign of Au- 
gustus it was captured by the Romans, and we read of 
one of its sovereigns, a Queen Candace, as his tributary. 



COSTUME OF THE NUBIANS. 



277 



Its decay appears to have been rapid, for even as early 
as the time of Nero its site was only known by the ruins 
of its once splendid temples and palaces. 

After the Moslem conquest of Egypt, Nubia was in- 
vaded by the Arabs, w r ho spread themselves over its 
valleys and plains, and now consist of five principal 
tribes: the Djowabere, El-Gharbye, the Kenons, the 
Koreish, and the Djaafere. Further to the south, in a 
fertile country, dwell the Berbers or Barabra ; then come 
the Ababde and the warlike Sheygya ; while from Don- 
gola and Sennaar, a Negro state, the people, of mixed 
Arab and Nigritic blood, are called Noubas. 

The Nubians, as a w T hole, are a more athletic and 
vigorous race than the Egyptians. They are honest, 
courageous, and independent. The women are more 
virtuous, while they are also more beautiful ; the face 
being a fine oval, the eyes dark and expressive, the com- 
plexion a glowing bronze, the figure light and elegant. 
They possess, too, the singular charm of a very sweet 
and plaintive voice. The virgins wear nothing but a 
leathern girdle round the loins, and a blue or white scarf 
dependent from the back of their heads. The matrons 
clothe themselves in a long and loose blue robe. Few 
of the young men wear any covering except a cincture 
round the loins. They carry a knife, slung in a sheath 
over the left shoulder ; and a club of ebony, or a long 
spear, ornamented with the skin of serpents or croco- 
diles. Their hair glistens in the sun with the castor-oil 
which they very freely use. 

They eat little animal food, and their staple diet is the 
fruit of the doum-palm, dates, tamarinds, and maize. 



278 PRINCIPAL TOWNS OF NUBIA. 



They breed large flocks of poultry. The principal pro- 
ducts of the country are aloes, musk, many valuable and 
useful gums, maize, tamarinds, myrrh, frankincense, 
and senna. The inhabitants trade also in skins, cotton, 
coffee, tobacco, ostrich feathers, ebony, ivory, gold dust, 
and salt. They have no currency of their own ; glass 
beads, coral, cotton, tobs or shirts, and samoor or cloth, 
they receive as money ; but the coins of Europe and 
Egypt are never refused. They sell their grain by the 
handful, and measure their cloth from the elbow to the 
fingers. They plait skilfully, but are ignorant of the use 
of looms. Their houses are low huts of stone or sun- 
dried clay. Their musical instrument is a kind of five- 
stringed banjo or guitar; and their music, as with almost 
all savage nations, is of a melancholy character. 

Nubia is traversed by the windings of the Nile, which 
forms five cataracts within its bounds, and receives its 
principal tributary, the Atbara or Tacazze. At Khar- 
tum, the two branches, the Bahr-el-Abiad, or White 
Nile, and the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue Nile, unite to form 
the great Egyptian river. 

The principal towns are Khartum, with a population 
of 40,000 ; El Obeid, in Kordafan, with 20,000 ; Shendy, 
above the junction of the Atbara, a large and prosperous 
market for cattle, senna, cotton, and grain ; New D an- 
gola; and Derr. 

Nubia belongs to the kingdom of Egypt. It was con- 
quered by Ismael Pasha, second son of Mehemet Ali, in 
1820-22. He swept over the country like a destructive 
simoom, burning and ravaging the crops and villages, 
until his terrible career was cut short by a fearful death, 



COA r Q UES T BY ISM A EL PA SHA . 279 




body of his army, to surround his hut with piles of straw, 
and, setting them on fire, burned to death the Pasha and 
his suite. Mehemet Ali's revenge was signal. He slew 
all the inhabitants of the village nearest to his son's 
funeral pyre, and cut off the right hands of five hundred 
men besides.* 

* Malte Brun, " Geographie Universelle ; " " Nubia and Abyssinia" 'Edin. 
Cab. Lib.) ; Mrs. Romer ; " Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia," See. 

19 



CHAPTER II. 



■ DEXDOUR — GHIRSCHE HOUSSEYN — ITS 
DAKKEH — VALLEY OE THE LIONS IPSAM- 

Here Desolation keeps unbroken Sabbath, 
'Mid caves and temples, palaces and sepulchres ; 
Ideal images in sculptured forms, 
Thoughts hewn in columns, or in caverned hill, 
In honour of their deities and their dead. 

James Montgomery. 

13§HE first five miles after leaving Philae, the 
voyager's course is south by east, then it 
JIJj 1 turns towards the west, and finally resumes 
the former direction. He sees little to in- 
vite his attention until he reaches Debodeh, a village 
situated on the left bank, where the remains of a small 
temple may be seen. 

Here the Xile flows in a steady and copious stream, 
for the most part washing the base of the eastern 
and western mountains ; but wherever the inundation 
has deposited a thin stratum of soil upon the rocks, or 
has accumulated mounds of sand and mud, the Nubian 
cultivates such spots, and plants them with the universal 
date-tree. Thus a succession of little hamlets and water- 



KALABSCHE — 
TEMPLE — 
BUL. 



THE LARGEST NUBIAN TEMPLE. 



281 



wheels — for the one is never seen without the other — 
greets the eye on both sides as the traveller ascends the 
Nile Valley. 

At Kalabsche (the Talmis of the ancients), lat. 23 30' 
N., where we resume our voyage, stands one of the largest 
and most perfect rock-temples in Nubia. Its remains con- 
sist of an abutment of masonry, rising above the bank of 
the river, at about 1S0 feet from the front, to which there 
is a paved approach. On each side of the pavement 
appears to have stood a row of sphinxes, one of which 
remains, but is headless ; and at its extremity a flight of 
steps led to a terrace 36 feet broad, crowned by two 
pyramidal masses, 18 or 20 feet thick, with a gateway 
between them — the whole forming a facade of not less 
than no feet. Inside, there is a court of about 40 feet, 
which must originally have had a colonnade linking the 
portico to the propylon.* The former consists of four 
massive pillars, attached for half their height to a wall, 
raised in the centre to form an entrance. Its front is 
plain, but the well-known emblem of the winged globe 
surmounts the gateway. It is divided by a lateral wall 
from a group of nine chambers, three of which are em- 
bellished with the usual hieroglyphical and allegorical 
figures, in colours still fresh and brilliant. 

The temple was founded by Amunophis II., dedicated 
to a god named Mandulis, a son of Isis, rebuilt by one of 
the Ptolemys, and repaired by Augustus, Caligula, and 
Trajan. As the largest in Nubia, the Christians after- 
wards laid hands upon it, and a saint and several halos 
are strangely conspicuous among the Pagan decorations 

* Dr. Richardson, " Travels along the Mediterranean," &c. 



282 



ENTERING A ROCK-TEMPLE 



of one of the inner chambers. For the rest, it is " a 
heap of magnificent ruin magnificent for costliness and 
vastness, but not conspicuous for simplicity or sublimity 
of design. 

At the rock-temple of Beyt-el~Wellee, two miles from 
Kalabsche, we once more find ourselves face to face 
with the genuine early art. It is full of the glory of the 
great Rameses.* It is dedicated to Amun-Ra, the Sun- 
god ; and to Kneph, or Knuph, the ram-headed god, 
who, in conjunction with Ptah, or Artistic Intellect, 
infuses life into organized beings, animates and inspires 
the material clay. But this little temple was sacred also 
to another deity, the virgin goddess Anouke, the god- 
dess of " Home and Purity." 

We approach the cave-entrance between quarried rocks 
covered with remarkable sculptures. On one side sits 
Rameses enthroned, receiving the costly tribute and 
servile homage of the conquered Ethiopians, among 
whom maybe recognized, for they are named, the Prince 
of Cush and his two children. There are oxen and 
gazelles, lions and antelopes, cameleopards, apes, ele- 
phants' teeth, quaint gorgeous fans, bags of gold, and 
heaps of ostrich eggs ; Ethiopia has poured out all 
her wealth to secure the victor's clemency. Proceed a 
few steps further, and you see the battle-scene, which 
was the prelude to this triumph: it glows with rude 
vigorous life : the foe is fleeing; a wounded chief is borne 
aloft by his warriors; Rameses bends his bow as he 



* Harriet Martineau, " Eastern Life," i. 232. See also Dr. Richardson, 
lit ante. 



AT GHIRSCHE HOUSSEYN. 



283 



sweeps along in his mighty chariot \ a Nubian peasant 
boy flings dust upon his head, lamenting over his coun- 
try's downfall. Turn to the other side, and your eye 
fastens upon other pictures of the storm and the strife — 
all tending to the glorification of the great sovereign who 
erected this temple as a thanksgiving for his victories 
and a monument to his fame. 

The temple itself contains two chambers only; the 
outer court, and the adytum, or holy place. The walls, 
as usual, are covered with hieroglyphs and pictures. A 
Mohammedan hermit is said to have made his abode 
here, and probably he defaced much of the fine Egyptian 
handiwork.* 

At Dendour stands a Romano-Egyptian temple, com- 
paratively of little interest. It is sacred to the triad — 
Osiris, Horus, and Isis \ and in the holy place you see 
nothing but a tablet, with a sculpture of Isis upon it, 
and a few hieroglyphic signs. In a grotto, excavated in 
the rock behind, yawns a burial-pit. 

Of far greater interest is the next place at which pur 
dahabeeyah comes to an anchor — Ghirsche Housseyn, 
Guerf Hassan, or Gerf Hossayn (the ancient Tntzis):\ 
It is one of the strangest and wildest spots in Nubia. To 
reach it, the traveller, on landing, crosses a breadth of 
corn-field, and then a strip of yellow sandy desert. Lo, 
before him, a tall cliff, and in the face of it the propylon 
of a superb temple ! It looks like the portal to a sub- 
terranean palace of the Genii. The shadow of a remote 



* Sir G. "Wilkinson, " Modern Egypt and Thebes," ii. 310-313. 
t Belzoni, " Tr?.vels," i. 112. 



284 



A SUPERB PROPYLOX 




ROMANO-EGYPTIAN TEMPLE AT DEXDOL'R. 



antiquity is upon it. Far back, in the days of Pharaonic 
Egypt, it was hewn out of the rock — in the reign of the 
great Raraeses : who dedicated it to Ptah. the " Lord of 
Truth," *he " God of creative or artisan Intellect, 1 ' and 



IN HONOUR OF PTAH. 285 

the " Maker of the Universe ; ? ' and sculptured here his 
symbols — the scarabaeus, whose ball of earth, the depo- 
sitory of its eggs, affords an apt image of the habitable 



SACRED SCARABAEUS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

globe — and the frog, which typifies the embryo of the 
human species. Ghirsche Housseyn, as well as Mem- 
phis, was formerly named after this deity — Pthahei, or 
Thypthah.* 

The whole of the temple, except part of the portico, 
is within the rock. The portico consists of five square 
columns on each side, which are hewn out of the live 
stone, with a row of circular ones in front, constructed 
of several blocks. Before each of the square pillars 
stands a colossal statue of sandstone about 18 feet high, 
holding a flail in one hand, the other hanging down. 
These are Ramessids, or male figures, with the high sphinx- 



* Sir G. Wilkinson. "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," iv. 
250. 



286 



THE OLD EGYPTIAX SYMBOLISM. 



helmet on their heads, and narrow beards under their 
chins; the shoulders covered with hieroglyphic inscrip- 
tions. A large gate opens from the portico into the 
pronaos, which measures 45 feet square, and contains 
two rows of three huge columns, and colossal Ramessids. 
The workmanship is rude, but the whole has a very im- 
pressive effect. Burckhardt asserts* that accustomed as 
he was to the grandeur of Egyptian temples, he was, 
nevertheless, struck with admiration on entering this 
gloomy pronaos, and beholding these immense figures 
standing in triumph before him. On the side walls are 
four recesses or niches, in each of which are three statues 
of the natural size, representing the different symbolical 
male and female figures seen on the walls of the temples 
of Egypt. The centre figures are generally clothed in a 
long dress, while the others are naked. All these, as 
well as the colossi, are covered with a thick coat of 
stucco, and had once been painted : they must then have 
had a splendid appearance. A door leads from the 
pronaos into the cella, in the middle of which are two 
massy pillars, and on either side a small apartment, 
which was probably used as a place of sepulture : on the 
floor of each are high stone benches, which may have 
served for supporting mummies, or perhaps as tables for 
embalming the bodies deposited in the temple. 

The groups in the recesses consist of Amun-Ra, or the 
Sun, in the centre ; and, perhaps, Anouke and Athor as 
his supporters. The temple extends 130 feet into the 
rock. Its general appearance, as Mrs. Romer remarks, 
when the traveller enters the excavated parts never 

* Burckhardt. "Travels in Nubia," pp. 99. 100. 



THOTH A T DAKKEH. 



287 



visited by the rays of the sun, is singularly solemn and 
imposing.* The fitful light flung upon the stupendous 
pillars and colossal statues by the torches which the 
Nubian attendants bear in their dusky hands, gives a 
weird and unearthly colouring to the whole scene ; and 
it is still further intensified by the multitude of bats 
which, scared from their dark retreats by the unwelcome 
blaze, flit to and fro like malignant demons. 

The next place at which we stop is Dakkeh (the ancient 
Pse/ds), standing in solitary grandeur in the centre of a 
wild and dreary desert. But in the distance lies a patch 
of cultivated land, and a small Nubian village stands 
near the river-bank. This is the furthest point to the 
south, according to Champollion, where any monuments 
were built, or, more correctly speaking, reconstructed by 
the Ptolemys and the Caesars, whose sway, it seems 
evident, did not extend beyond Ibreem. As long as the 
Romans held Ethiopia, it was the head-quarters of a 
body of Germanic cavalry. Its temple was commenced 
by Eugamenes, the most famous of the Ethiopian kings 
of Egypt : it was continued by Ptolemy Euergetes and 
his two immediate successors ; the Roman Emperor 
Augustus contributed to its embellishment ; but it was 
never completed. Eugamenes dedicated it to Thoth, the 
god of intellect and the arts — the " Trismegistus " of the 
later magicians — and his emblem, the ibis, with the hawk 
sacred to Ra, is sculptured on the walls of the ancient 
adytum. Their surface is also covered with figures of 
gods and kings, the water-plants of the god Nilus, and 

* Mrs. Romer. " Temples and Tombs of Egypt and Nubia," i. 234. 



288 



WHAT WERE THE PROPYL A ? 



other decorative devices, — in blue, and green, and red, — 
still wonderfully clear and vivid. The chambers erected 
by the Ptolemys have some modern decorations blended 
with the ancient symbols, such as the Greek caduceus — 
the serpent-wand of Mercury — the cithara, or harp — and 
the olive-wreath. Here, too, are the daubs perpetrated 
by Coptic Christians : saints, with " huge wry faces, and 
flaring glories over their heads." 

The traveller can ascend to the summit of the pro- 
pylon by a winding flight 'of sixty-nine steps. The 
panorama spread out before him is somewhat monoto- 
nous, but grand in its monotony ; the rolling sands of the 
Nubian Desert stretching far away into the warm soft 
haze of a tropical horizon, the blue riband-like course of 
the Nile, the strip of verdure on either bank, and the 
groves of palms which serve to relieve the landscape. 

These propyla, as Miss Martineau remarks,* were the 
watch-towers and bulwarks of the temples in the old 
days when the temples of the deities were the fortifica- 
tions of the country. If the inhabitants had known early 
enough the advantage of citadels and garrisons, perhaps 
the Shepherd kings might never have conquered the 
country ; or would at least have found their conquest of 
it more difficult than, according to Manetho, they did. 
" It came to pass," says Manetho (as Josephus cites 
him), " I know not how, that God was displeased with 
us ; and there came up from the east, in a strange man- 
ner, men of an ignoble race, who had the confidence to 
invade our country, and easily subdued it by their power, 
without a battle. And when they had our rulers in their 

* Harriet Martineau, "Eastern Life," i. 219, 220. 



WATCH-TOWERS AND OBSERVATORIES. 289 



hands, they burned our cities, and demolished the temples 
of the gods, and inflicted every kind of barbarity upon 
the inhabitants; slaying some, and reducing the wives 
and children of others to slavery." It could scarcely 
have happened, adds Miss Martineau, that these Shep- 
herds "of an ignoble race," would have captured the coun- 
try "without a battle," and laid hands on the rulers, if there 
had been such citadels as the later built temples, and 
such watch-towers and bulwarks as these massive propyla. 
Whenever you ascend any one of them, and look out 
through the loop-holes in the thick walls, you cannot but 
feel that these erections were for military full as much as 
religious purposes. Indeed, it is clear that the ideas 
were scarcely separable, after war had once made havoc 
in the Valley of the Nile. As for the non-military pur- 
poses of these propyla, they gave admission, through the 
portal in the centre, to the visitors to the temple, whether 
they came in the ordinary way, or in the processions 
which were so imposing in the ancient times. 

But they were also used as observatories, whence the 
priests watched the starry face of the tropical heavens ; 
and from their summits, on days of festal pomp or re- 
ligious ceremony, were unfolded the mystic banners 
blazoned with hieroglyphic symbols. Those priests of 
old well understood the truth, that, for the mass of man- 
kind, Imagination is the handmaid of Faith, and knew 
how to stimulate the heart by appealing to the eye. 
The forms and rites of their worship were not less splendid 
than mystical. There was the shrine of the deity borne 
aloft by shaven and white-robed flamens ; then came 
flags with emblematic figures of the god or hero em- 



290 



THE VALLEY OF THE LIONS. 



broidered on their folds ; and long trains of suppliants 
followed, with red oxen, fruits and cakes, turtle-doves 
and incense, as offerings. The king, himself the arch- 
priest and visible representation of the Supreme, shone 
conspicuous in all the splendour of Eastern pomp ; and 
crowds of warriors, with their bows and spears, enlivened 
the scene ; and music filled the air with the varied sounds 
of joy, or grief, or humility, or triumph ; while in the 
dim, dark recesses of the adytum, rested the sacred wings 
of the god whose manifold attributes were denned by a 
myriad fanciful allegories. All was adapted to enchain 
the attention of the " common herd and yet in all 
lay hidden, for the thoughtful, a treasury of suggestive 
lore. 

But while thus musing at Dakkeh, our dahabeeyah 
waits for us. We must resume our voyage. There is 
little in the scenery to interest us here, the Desert stretch- 
ing down to the very margin of the river. We pass the 
village of Seegala — which is surrounded on all sides by 
the lonely waste, on whose border rises the sand-column, 
to stride giant-like across leagues of wilderness, and fall 
devouringly upon the unhappy caravan — and pause a 
moment at Wady Sebou, or Sabooa y the "Valley of the 
Lions j" so named from the broken sphinxes that guard 
the approach to its rock-hewn temple. There are four 
on each hand as you go up to the propylon ; but one is 
wholly covered, and five others more or less completely 
hidden. A couple are unburied, but their features have 
almost disappeared. The head of the one uncovered is 
nearly complete, and very impressive in the awful serenity 
of its countenance. Two rude statues, about ten feet in 



THE NUBIAN CAPITAL. 



291 



height, look out upon the river with lack-lustre eyes : they 
are unbearded males, roughly executed. Opposite to the 
entrance a colossus lies on the ground, shattered and 
half-buried in the sand. Within the propylon is the por- 
tico, or pronaos, with five columns on its two longer sides. 
In front of each, and attached to it, stands a Ramessid or 
colossal figure, 16 feet in height, having the arms crossed 
upon the breast, with the flail in one hand, and the 
priest's wand in the other. The whole fabric is very 
ancient, belonging to the Ramesean period. Burckhardt 
suggests that it afforded a model for the later Egyptian 
architects.* The two statues in front of the propylon, 
he says, are the miniatures of those in front of the Mera- 
nonium, and the sphinxes are seen at Karnak. It is 
certain that this is one of the most venerable of the 
Nubian sanctuaries. 

Yet of a still remoter antiquity must be the temple at 
Derr. Derr, let us note, is the capital of Nubia, a large 
town of mud-built houses, scattered among gardens of 
herbs, melons, and cucumbers, and groves of palm-trees, 
on the eastern bank of the river. The governor's house, 
or palace, is mostly built of burned brick, and has a mag- 
nificent sycamore in front of it. 

The temple is partly hewn out of the rock, only its 
area and portico being in the open air. The area had 
once eight pillars, of which only the bases remain; and 
numerous pictures on its walls, of which scarcely a trace 
is discernible. The corridor, or portico, is faced with 
four Ramessid pillars — pillars supporting huge figures, 

* Burckhardt, " Travels in Nubia," p. 90. 



292 



THE CASTLE OE IB RE EM. 



decorated with the usual symbols. The sanctuary is the 
rock part of the temple — a hall adorned with six square 
columns. The walls are sculptured in what has been 
termed " intaglio relevato;" — that is, the outlines are cut 
in a groove, whose depth affords the requisite relief to 
the impression. From its design we perceive that the 
temple was built by Rameses the Great, or, more pro- 
bably, was commenced before his time, and completed 
by that most restless and ubiquitous of architect-kings. 
Here are his lion, his children, his enemies, his gods, his 
wealth, his triumphs. 

The adytum is small, and its images have vanished. 
There are two lateral chambers of no importance. The 
entire depth in the rock is about no feet. 

Once more we are on the Nile, and making our way 
through the Nubian sands. At times we light upon very 
pleasant spots of greenery, upon patches covered with 
the yellow blossoms of the cotton-shrub, upon fields en- 
riched with blooming crops of grain and pulse. At 
Tosko we ascend some dangerous rapids formed by a reef 
of rocks, and pass under the lofty crag crowned by the 
castle of Ibreem, the Premnis of Strabo, and the Primis 
of Pliny, which was defended against Petronius, the lieu- 
tenant of Augustus Caesar, by a masculine queen, called 
in history Candace \ though Candace was unquestion- 
ably a title, and not a name. It was afterwards occu- 
pied by Roman and Saracenic garrisons. Its height 
above the river, which is at this point about a quarter of 
a mile broad, has been estimated at 200 feet." 

* Kenrick, "Ancient Egypt," ii. 464. 



THE WOXDER OF THE NILE VALLEY. 293 



Our voyage now brings us to one of the most famous 
spots in Xubia — Abou-Simbel, or Ipsambul, the chief 
wonder, perhaps, of all the Upper Valley of the Nile ; the 
ancient Napata* and capital of the Ethiopian kingdom. 

For generations the drifting sands of the Desert accu- 
mulated over its buried sanctuaries, and nothing was 
visible but the head of a single colossal statue to excite 
the wonder of the traveller. No one inquired what this 
solitary ruin mea?it — whether it marked the site of a city, 
or a palace, or a tomb — until, in the year 181 7, the en- 
terprising Belzoni, who possessed a peculiar genius for 
such achievements, accompanied by Captains Irby and 
Mangles, undertook an excavation. Their toil was well 
rewarded, for it brought to light a monument not unjustly 
attributed by Champollion to the grandest epoch of 
Pharaonic civilization. Here, exclaims Warburton, the 
daring Genius of Ethiopian architecture ventured to 
enter into rivalry with Nature's greatness, and found her 
material in the very mountains that seemed to bid defi- 
ance to her efforts, f You can conceive nothing more 
singular and impressive, says Mrs. Romer, than the facade 
of this great temple. % From Burckhardt to Miss Mar- 
tineau, every writer has run riot in eulogium. Ipsambul, 
says Sir F. Henniker,§ is the ne plus ultra of Egyptian la- 
bour, and in itself an ample recompense for the journey. 

There are two temples at Ipsambul, one much larger 
than the other, but both hewn out of the solid sandstone 

* Ritter, " Erdkunde," i. 571. 

t E. Warburton, " The Crescent and the Cross." chap. xiii. 
\ Mrs. Romer, " Temples and Tombs of Egypt and Xubia," i. 207. 
§ Sir F. Henniker, " Notes During a Visit to Egypt," &c. p. 160. See also 
Champollion, Dr. Richardson, and Burckhardt. 



294 



A VISIT TO THE A MM OX I CM. 



rock. Let us first visit the more considerable, the Am- 
monium, dedicated to Osiris, or Amun-Ra. 

Here, an area of about 187 feet in breadth, and 86 feet 
in height, is hewn out of the mountain, smooth, except 
for the relievos. The fagade is composed of a vast 
gateway, flanked on either hand by two colossal statues 
of Rameses II., seated, and each about 65 feet high. 
There they sit enthroned, as they have sat for ages, and 




TEMPLE OF OSIRIS, IPSAMBUL. 



their motionless faces look out upon the desert with a 
kind of stony calm. From the shoulder to the elbow 
they measure 15 feet 6 inches; the ears 3 feet 6 inches; 
the face 7 feet ; the beard 5 feet 6 inches ; across the 
shoulders 25 feet 4 inches. The faces are exquisitely 
moulded. The beauty of the curves is surprising in the 
stone; the fidelity of the rounding of the muscles, and 
the grace of the flowing lines of the cheek and jaw.* It 
is remarkable that the proportions of these colossal 

* Harriet Martineau, '' Eastern Life," i. 197. 



A COLOSSAL DOORWAY. 



295 



visages, though the artist could have had only a life-size 
model to guide him, are admirably harmonious. 

Between the legs of these gigantic Ramessids are placed 
smaller statues ; mere pigmies compared with their huge 
neighbours, and yet considerably larger than human size. 

The doorway is about 20 feet high. Above it stands 
a statue of Isis, wearing the moon as a turban — or, as 




INTERIOR OF TEMPLE OF OSIRIS, IPSAMBUL. 

some sav, of Osiris — of about the same dimensions as the 
doorway, and on either side are some huge hieroglyphical 
bas-reliefs ; while the whole facade is finished by a cor- 
nice and line of hieroglyphs and quaintly-carved figures, 
surmounted by a frieze of sculptured monkeys, twenty- 
one in number, and each measuring 8 feet in height, and 
6 feet across the shoulders. 

On entering the temple you find yourself within "a 

(295 2 



296 THE MITRE-CROWNED RA MESS IDS. 

vast and gloomy hall, such as Eblis might have given 
Vathek audience in;" a reception-chamber not unworthy 
of the most splendid of the Egyptian kings. As soon as 
the eye becomes accustomed to the gloom, there gradu- 
ally reveals itself, above and around, " a vast aisle, with 
pillars formed of eight colossal giants, upon whom the 
light of heaven has never shone." The tops of their 
mitre-shaped head-dresses, each bearing in front the ser- 
pent, the emblem of royalty, for each is an image of the 
magnificent Rameses, nearly touch the roof. They are 
all perfectly alike ; all bear the crosier and flagellum ; 
and every face is full of deep and expressive meaning. 

" Vigilant, serene, 
benign, here they 
sit, teaching us to 
.inquire reverential- 
ly into the early 
powers and condi- 
tion of that human 
mind which was ca- 
pable of such con- 
ceptions of abstract 
qualities as are re- 
presented in their 
forms." 

These images of 
the great king are 
backed by enor- 
mous pillars, behind 
which run two great 
galleries whose 




A RAMESSID AT IPSAMBUL. 



IN THE GREAT HALL. 



297 



walls are profusely embellished with hieroglyphical repre- 
sentations of battle and victory ; of conquering warriors, 
fleeing foemen, bleeding victims, cities besieged, whole 
companies of chariots, long trains of soldiers and cap- 
tives — all painted with a surprising truth and vigour. 

The hall measures 57 feet by 52. It opens into 
a smaller chamber, 22 feet high, 37 broad, and 25 J feet 
long, which contains four pillars, about 3 feet square; its 
walls are also enriched with fine hieroglyphs in excellent 
preservation. Beyond it lies a shorter chamber, but of 
the same width, leading into the adytum (23 feet long 
and 12 feet broad), where, in front of four large figures — 
Amun-Ra, Khem (or Egypt), Kneph, and Osiris — seated 
on rocky thrones, stands a simple altar of the living 
rock. 

On the right side of the great hall, entering into the 
temple, may be seen two doors at a short distance from 
each other, which lead into separate chambers ; the first, 
39 feet long and 11 J feet wide; the other, 48J feet by 
13 feet 3 inches. At the lateral corners of the entrance 
from the first into the second apartment are other doors, 
each conducting into a room hewn out of the solid rock, 
but with no visible means of ventilation, and each 22J 
feet long by 10 feet broad. These rooms open into 
others, 43 feet in length and n feet in width. The 
six lateral chambers are almost wholly covered with 
graceful representations of offerings to the gods — lamps, 
vases, flasks, and piles of cake and fruit. The lotus is 
painted in every stage of growth. And the boat — a fre- 
quent symbol everywhere — is incessantly repeated : the 
seated figure in the convolution at bow and stem, the 



29S 



A TEMPLE OF ISIS. 



central pavilion, and the paddle hanging over the side. 
One of these boats is borne aloft by a procession of 
priests, as a shrine, upon poles of palm-trunks lashed 
together. Many of the hieroglyphics are unfinished ; 
yet, though merely sketched, they give one a very 
favourable idea of the Egyptian manner of drawing. 

The smaller temple, likewise entirely excavated in the 
sandstone rock, was dedicated to Isis by Nofre-Ari, 
queen of Rameses the Great, and dates from about 




TEMPLE OF ISIS AT IPSAMBUL. 



1320 B.C. Either side of the doorway is ornamented by 
three statues, 35 feet high, sculptured in relief, and stand- 
ing erect, with their arms hanging stiffly down. The 
two central represent Nofre-Ari, the queen, as Athor, 
whose gentle face is surmounted by the usual crown — 
the moon contained within the cow's horns. The other 
images are those of Rameses and his eldest son. Be- 
neath each hand is placed an upright statue, 7 feet in 
height, which does not, however, rise above the knees of 
its principal. These are the children of the royal couple. 



THE SCULPTURED WALLS. 



299 



The part of the rock which has been hewn down for the 
facade of the temple measures in feet in length.* 

The devices begin on the north side, with a figure of 
Rameses brandishing his falchion, as if about to strike. 
The goddess behind him lifts her hand in suplication for 
the victim ; while Osiris, in front, holds forth the great 
knife, as if to command the slaughter. He is seated 
there as the judge, and decides the fate of the nations 
conquered by the Egyptian king. The next object is a 
colossal statue of about 30 feet high, wrought in a deep 
recess of the rock : it is standing, and two tall feathers 
rise up from the middle of the head-dress, with the globe 
or moon on each side. Then comes a mass of hiero- 
glyphics, which are also thickly sculptured on each side 
of the door, and above them are seated Osiris and the 
hawk-headed deity. On each side of the passage, as you 
enter the temple, offerings are presented to Isis, who 
holds in her hand the lotus-headed sceptre, surrounded 
with numerous emblems and inscriptions. This hall is 
supported by six square pillars, all bearing the head of 
Athor on the front face of their capitals ; the other three 
faces being occupied with sculptures, once gaily painted, 
and still showing blue, red, and yellow colours. The 
shafts are covered with hieroglyphs, and representations 
of Osiris, Isis, Kneph, and other gods. 

Within the outer or entrance hall is a transverse corri- 
dor, ending in two rude chambers. And beyond the 
corridor lies the sanctuary, or adytum^ where Isis appears 
in all her majesty, with the emblematic disk of night's 
beautiful luminary above her head. In another part she 

* Dr. Richardson, " Travels along the Mediterranean," &c, 428, 429. 



BOUNDARY OF ROMAN CONQUEST. 



stands, as a cow, in a boat surrounded by water plants ; 
the king and queen presenting rare gifts to this " Lady 
of Aboshek, the foreign land." 

The temple, which is only a few yards from the river's 
brink, and about twenty feet above the present level of 
its water, extends seventy- six feet into the rock. A 
number of ovals, or cartouches as Champollion calls them, 
containing the name and praenomen of Rameses the 
Great, are cut in several places of the square border that 
encloses the fagade of the temple like a frame, and on 
the buttresses between the colossal figures.* 

Napata marks the boundary of the Roman Conquest 
south of Egypt, and was captured and plundered by 
the Romans in B.C. 22 by Petronius, the lieutenant of 
Augustus. 

* The two lions of red granite — one bearing the name of Amunophis III., the 
other of Amuntuoneh — now at the entrance of the Gallery of Antiquities in the 
British Museum, were brought from Napata by Lord Purdhoe (the late Duke of 
Northumberland). They belong to the period of the 18th dynasty of kings. 




CHAPTER III. 

GEBEL-ADHA — WADY HALFA THE SECOND CATARACT — 

THE TEMPLE OF SOLEB — MER0E, AND ITS ANTIQUITIES 
— RUINS AT NAJA AND EL-MESAOURAT— THE SACRED 
BOAT. 

Wild and desolate 

Those courts, where once the mighty sate ; 
Nor longer on those mouldering towers 

Were seen the past of fruits and flowers 

Neither priest nor rites were there. 

Moore. 




N the cliff, nearly opposite Ipsambul, is ex- 
cavated another rock-temple, called Gebel- 
Adha, which was used in later times as a 
Christian church. It was a curious sight, 
remarks Mr. Warburton, to see images of our Saviour 
and the Virgin blazoned in glowing colours on these 
walls and roofs, surrounded by trophies and memorials 
of the idols whose worship they had swept away. Steps, 
also hewn in the rock, descended to a certain point 
towards the river, and then suddenly ceased : a proof, 
among others, that the level of the Nile was much higher 
(even so lately as the Christian consecration of this 
temple) than at present.* 

* Eliot Warburton, "The Crescent and the Cross," chap. xii. 



302 



THE ROCK OF ABOUSEER. 



The ordinary route of Nile voyagers terminates at the 
Wady Haifa, where begins a succession of rapids and 
rocks, stretching up the river for about one hundred miles 
to the Second Cataract, which is impassable for boats 
ascending the river. The immediate country is generally 
beautiful as well as fertile. In some places the river 
broadens into a channel of four or five miles span, en- 
closing numerous romantic islands clothed with a luxu- 
riant vegetation. 

Near the landing-place at Wady Haifa moulder the 
ruins of a temple begun, if not wholly erected, by two of 
the Theban kings soon after the expulsion of the Shep- 
herd race, and long before the grand structures of Thebes 
had been conceived by the genius of Rameses. "About 
this time," says Miss Martin eau, " Moses was watching 
the erection of the great obelisk (which we call Cleo- 
patra's Needle) at Heliopolis, where he studied/' The 
remains are few, and only remarkable on account of their 
extreme antiquity, and because they exhibit the rudi- 
ments of the so-called Doric column. 

From this spot it is customary to make a pilgrimage 
to the rock of Abou-Seir, or Abooseer : a steep and craggy 
hill of red sandstone, about 200 feet high, which over- 
looks the whole range of the Cataract, and commands a 
far view of the Nubian wilderness — of that wide, desolate 
waste, which was once a fertile and populous kingdom. 
The only living things are a partridge or two, a gazelle, 
and a jerboa ; though in some remote recesses the 
hyaenas lurk, and in the shallow waters of the river the 
crocodiles are basking unseen. The whole scene is com- 
posed of desert, river, and black basaltic rocks, except 



SOLEB AND ITS TEMPLE. 



where, against the dim horizon, may be traced the 
rounded and softened outlines of the blue Arabian hills. 

At a considerable distance above the Second Cataract, 
and far beyond the usual limits of Nile-travel, is the Temple 
of Soleb ; of sufficient interest to justify a brief description. 

The remains of two sphinxes guard either side of the 




TEMPLE OF AMUN-RA, SOLEB. 



approach, which terminated at a flight of stone steps 
leading to the main building. The front of the portal, 
now in chaotic ruin, measured 175 feet in length, and 
the breadth of the steps was not less than 57 feet. The 
wall is 24 feet thick, and honeycombed with numerous 
cells, whose object cannot now be determined. 



304 



AN EXTINCT KINGDOM. 



The first chamber, 100 feet broad and 89 feet deep, is 
embellished on three sides by a row of pillars, making 
in the whole, when perfect, thirty columns. The dia- 
meter of the base of each is 5 feet 7 inches ; the height 
about 40 feet. They are covered with hieroglyphics. 
Only a few columns are left entire. 

The second chamber had twenty-four pillars, all of 
which have been prostrated and shattered by some 
sudden subsidence of the ground. A few feet of masonry 
indicate the site of the adytum, which appears to have 
contained twelve columns, sculptured with figures about 
3 feet high. From these it has been conjectured that 
the temple was dedicated to Amun-Ra. The general 
character of its architecture is light and graceful. 

Our ascent of the river terminates at Meroe, or Merawe, 
a portion of the ancient Ethiopia.* A glance at the 
map of Nubia will show the reader that at Old Dongola, 
in latitude 18 N. nearly, the Nile suddenly turns to the 
north-east, ascending above the 20th parallel, when it 
retraces its course in a southerly direction to its point of 
confluence with the Tacazze. The peninsular tract thus 
enclosed formed the ancient kingdom of Meroe (Meporj). 
The exuberant fertility of its soil, its numerous animals, 
and its valuable mineral deposits, made it, at a very remote 
time, the seat of a powerful kingdom, which attracted 
thither a constant stream of commerce, and exported 
its treasures to Carthage, Arabia, and India. About 
1000 B.C. it was esteemed one of the leading states of the 
world, though nominally a tributary of the Egyptian 
Empire. Two centuries and a half later it regained its 

* That is, the country of the " sun-burned " [AidCoxfrs). 



GROUPS OF PYRAMIDS. 



305 



independence, under King Sabaco, and for eighty years 
held Egypt in subjection. It was afterwards subdued by 
Cambyses, who fortified the capital-town, and called it 
Meroe. Gradually the Egyptians emigrated thither ; the 
country lost its ancient character; and, after being in- 
vaded and conquered by the Romans, it sank into a 
decay as rapid as its former prosperity was surprising. 
Even in the reign of Nero nothing remained of the past 
splendour of its capital, but piles of shapeless ruins and 
fragments of mighty buildings. 

There would seem to have been two great Cushite 
cities: Napata (the present Gebel-el-Birkel), and Meroe, 
which retains its ancient name. 

Meroe is situated about 560 miles above Assouan, be- 
tween the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, in latitude 17 north. 
It is chiefly conspicuous for its great necropolis, whose 
eighty pyramids, though far inferior to those of Egypt in 
size, surpass them in architectural excellence. An im- 
mense plain is literally crowded with them ! A modern 
traveller counted eight different groups of these mysteri- 
ous piles — temples, tombs, observatories, whatever may 
have been their real character — one containing twenty-five, 
one twenty-three, and one thirteen pyramids. The loftiest 
is 160 feet in height. Each has a portico, invariably facing 
towards the east. Each is built of granite. The corners 
are partly ornamented, and the walls of the pyla are 
decorated with sculpture, in which some of the figures 
appear to be employed in making offerings for the 
departed. Isis, Osiris, Horus, and Thoth, also figure 
conspicuously. 

This necropolis is situated near a place now called 



306 



A T WO AD NAJA. 



Assom. At two neighbouring villages, Wood Naja and 
El-Mesaourat^ the ruins consist chiefly of temples. Those 
of the former place lie about twenty miles south-east of 
Shendy, and nearly the same distance from the Xile. 
The remains of the principal edifice show that it was 
dedicated to the god Amun. An avenue of huge rams 
couched upon massive pedestals leads into an open 




portico of ten columns : out of which, after threading his 
way through a similar avenue, the traveller arrives at the 
pylon. Adjoining is a colonnade of eight pillars, and 
beyond this a hall opens into the adytum. Columns, 
walls, and doorways are of hewn stone : the remainder of 
the structure of bricks, with a coating which still retains 



ANCIENT SCULPTURES. 307 

traces of the original painting. The sculptures of gods, 
and kings, and queens ; of attendants making oblations ; 
of the insignia of royal power, exhibit a remarkable 
energy and truthfulness. But from their general character, 
as well as from the arrangement of the temple, we may 
reasonably infer that it belongs to a remote antiquity. 

The western temple is smaller, but more copiously em- 
bellished. War-pictures adorn the pyla; and the king 
and queen appear with an eagle and a globe over their 
heads, and the emblem of royal power on their head- 
dress. It is noticeable that here the queens are repre- 
sented as heroines and conquerors, as the independent 
wearers of royalty. And it is in reference to this very 
kingdom Strabo remarks, that among the Ethiopians the 
women are also armed. From other historical sources 
we gather that no Salic law prevailed in Meroe. A long 
succession of queens, with the title Candace, must have 
reigned here • and even when, in course of time, the 
seat of the empire was removed from Meroe to Napata, 
near Gebel-el-Birkel, a female sovereign, so distinguished, 
exercised the supreme power. It is therefore in conso- 
nance with Ethiopian usage to see a queen in warlike 
array by her consort's side, though the custom is peculiar 
to that celebrated people. 

The colossal figures at Naja are described as of sur- 
passing excellence. Every traveller praises their bold- 
ness of outline and vividness of expression, no less than 
the general richness and perfection of the workmanship. 

Cailliaud, the French traveller, is our principal 
authority for the antiquities at El-Mesaonrat, which he 
describes as an extensive valley in the Desert, eight hours' 



3 oS 



TEMPLES AT EL-MESA OUR A T. 



journey from Shendy towards the south-east, and eighteen 
miles from the Astayrus. The ruins here are consider- 
able. They consist of eight small temples, all connected 
by corridors and terraces, and the whole forming an 
immense edifice, surrounded by a double enclosure. 
From the main central building radiate, in every direc- 
tion, connecting passages and galleries, which vary from 
185 to 300 feet in length. Each temple has its pylon 
and sanctuary ; and all the buildings are placed in an 
exact order, consisting of eight temples or sanctuaries, as 
already stated, forty-one chambers, twenty-four courts, 
three galleries, and fourteen staircases or flights of steps. 
The remains cover an area of ground nearly half a mile 
in circumference. 

The different parts, however, are not on the colossal 
scale to which the Egyptian antiquities have accustomed 
us. The largest temple, says Cailliaud,* is only 5 1 feet 
long ; some of the pillars are decorated with figures in the 
Egyptian style ; others in the same portico are fluted 
like the Grecian : on the base of one seemed discernible 
the traces of a zodiac. Time and the elements seem to 
have been willing to spare to us the observatory of 
Meroe. It excites one's wonder to discover so few 
hieroglyphics in this mass of ruins ; the six columns 
which form the portico of the central temple alone 
present a few examples, for all the other walls are free 
from sculpture. Six hundred paces from the ruins lie 
the remains of two other small temples, and also of a con- 
siderable tank, surrounded by little hills, which must 
have protected it from the sand. But there are no traces 

* Cailliaud, "Voyage a Meroe, au Fleuve Blanc," &c. (Paris, 1826-27). 



A STORY FROM DI ODOR US. 309 

of any city, no heaps of debris, no tombs. It is the 
opinion of Cailliaud that a college or seminary of learning 
was established on this spot : the form of the building 
and the style of the architecture seem to prove it ; but 
the city itself must have been situated in the vicinity of 
the sepulchres, where the pyramids are still found. 

Heeren, in his "Historical Researches," concludes from 
the facts recorded by Cailliaud, that El-Mesaourat was 
the site of the once famous " Oracle of Jupiter-Ammon." 
He remarks that a mere glance at the ground-plan of the 
ruins would support this opinion. Such a maze of 
passages and courts could only be intended as an im- 
posing introduction for the neophyte or votary to the 
secret sanctuary in the midst. According to Diodorus, 
he observes, the Temple of Jupiter did not stand in the 
city of Meroe, but at some distance from it, in the 
Desert. When, again, a certain sovereign resolved to 
free himself from the dominion of the priesthood, he 
marched, with a company of soldiers, to the sequestered 
spot where the sanctuary with the golden temple stood, 
and surprising the dismayed priests, put them and their 
attendants to death. Nor is the smallness of the edifice 
any objection to this view of the subject, for the same 
remark might be applied to the Ammonium in the 
Libyan Desert. It was probably intended only as an 
asylum for the " sacred ship," which is understood to 
have been placed between the pillars of the sacred 
shrine. Its locality in the wilderness appears to be less 
extraordinary, if you reflect that it was situated on one of 
the great routes of commercial intercourse between the 
Mediterranean and the Red Sea. 

(295) 21 



THE "SACRED SHIP:' 



Here we stand, if we may accept the theory of 
Heeren,* on that remarkable spot which the ancients 
regarded as the cradle of the arts and sciences ; where 
hieroglyphic writing was invented ; where temples and 
pyramids had already sprung up, while Egypt remained 
in ignorance of their existence. Hence flowed the 
mighty stream of civilization, following the course of the 
Nile itself, until Greece also drank of its living waters ; 
and gathering in volume as they rolled westward, they 
overspread in time the limits of the Roman Empire, and 
extended their beneficial influence to the furthest bounds 
of Christendom. 

In describing the antiquities, both of Egypt and Nubia, 
we have sometimes had occasion to refer to the " sacred 
ship," or "boat," which appears among their sculptures. 
The king called Sesostris is said to have dedicated one 
of cedar-wood to Amun, or Ammon, the chief deity and 
tutelary spirit of Thebes ; it was 420 feet long, and 
resplendent with gold on the outside and silver within. 
The use of this emblem is supposed to have denoted the 
foreign extraction of their priesthood and religious rites, 
and to have kept alive in the minds of the worshippers 
the distant land from whence their creed was originally 
derived.! Once a year, says Diodorus Siculus, the 
Greek historian, the sanctuary or shrine of Zeus was 
borne across the river in solemn pomp to the Libyan 
bank, and after a few days brought back, as if the god 
were returning from Ethiopia. This grand procession is 

* Heeren, "Historical Researches," &c, i. 403-406. 

f Dr. Russell, "Nubia and Abyssinia," p. 258; Heeren, "Historical Re- 
searches," &c, i. 301. 



JUPITER AND THE ETHIOPIANS. 311 

represented, as we have seen^ among the sculptures of 
the Great Temple at Karnak ; the sacred ship of Amun 
floats on the Nile, with its entire equipment, and is towed 
along by another boat. It is probable that Homer 
alludes to this ceremony when he describes Jupiter's 
twelve days' visit to the Ethiopians : he had heard of it 
from some traveller's tradition, from some floating legend, 
or vague recollection, and adapted it to the Greek 
deity : — 

" The sire of gods, and all th' ethereal train, 
On the warm limits of the furthest main, 
Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace 
The feasts of Aethiopia's blameless race ; 
Twelve days the Powers indulge the genial rite, 
Returning with the twelfth revolving light." 

Homer, Iliad, bk. i. [Popes Transl.) 




CHAPTER IV. 



THE LIBYAN OASES THEIR EXPLORERS — THE GREAT 

OASIS — THE LITTLE OASIS SIWAH, THE NORTHERN 

OASIS — THEIR ANTIQUITIES, AND ORACLES. 



amidst a dreary level, sunken in the stratum of limestone, 
like basins of water. The Coptic word ouahe liter- 
ally means "an inhabited place;" and an oasis is the 
solitary strip of vegetation and verdure where the Libyan 
tribes are able to pitch their tents.* Elsewhere, all is 
burning stone — leafless, waterless \ no shelter from the 
fierce rays of the tropical sun, which at noonday, strikes 
the wanderer with deadly shafts of fire ; no springs where 
he can slake his torturing thirst; no pleasant hill or 
leafy grove where he can rest his wearied limbs. Nor is 
the oasis in itself an Armida's garden of enchantment — 



.. ..-..The tufted isles 
That verdant rise amid the Libyan wild. 

Thomson. 




[HOUGH they are not included in the Nile Val- 
ley, our view of Ethiopian antiquities would 
be incomplete if we omitted all reference to 
the Libyan Oases. These fertile spots lie 



* Oasis is also said to be derived from the Arabic ivadi, a ravine, corrupted by 
the Greeks into oacriq. 



THE LIBYAN OASES. 



313 



a Happy Valley, like that of Rasselas : it is attractive 
chiefly from its contrast with the surrounding desola- 
tion, just as a mouldy crust of bread seems an inexpres- 
sibly delicious viand to the poor wretch who has hungered 
through days and nights of famine. By the Greeks and 
Romans they were used as places of banishment ; and 
many an earnest Christian, in the early days of persecu- 
tion, was doomed to linger out his life in the oases of 
the Libyan Desert.* They lie a few days' journey from 
the Nile, and were known to the Egyptians during the 
twelfth dynasty under the name of Sutur-Khenu. They 
are first mentioned by Herodotus in his vivid narration 
of the destruction of the Persian hosts by the blasts of 
the simoom. The Persians, after their conquest of 
Egypt in 525 B.C., seem to have permanently occupied 
them. Every schoolboy knows that one of them — • 
the Siwah Oasis, and its Temple of Amun or Ammon — 
was visited by Alexander the Great, and that the priests 
declared the Greek conqueror the son of the god, and 
the destined lord of the entire globe. They are also 
described by Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, Olympiodorus ; by 
the Arab travellers Edrissi (1150 a.d.) and Abulfeda (1240 
a.d.) ; by Leo Africanus (15 13 a.d.) \ and, among modern 
explorers, by Browne (1792), Cailliaud (18 19), Minutoli 
(1824), Sir Archibald Edmonstone (1819), and Mr. 
Hoskins (1837). The ancients only knew of three oases, 
but they are really five in number.t These are : — 

* The poet Juvenal was banished there by the Emperor Domitian ; and 
Athanasius is supposed to have found in them an asylum during the supremacy 
of the Arians. See Canon Kingsley's book on " The Hermits." 

t See Hoskins, "Visit to the Great Oasis" (London 1837); Sir A. Edmon- 
stone, "Journey to Two of the Oases" (1819; ; Modern Traveller, "Egypt," 
vol. ii., &c. 



3H 



THE GREA T OASIS. 



1. The Great Oasis (Oasis Magna): — chief town, El- 

Khargeh ; 

2. The Little Oasis (Oasis Minor) : — chief town, El- 

Dakkel; 

3. The Northern Oasis, or El-Siwah; 

4. The Oasis of El-Earafreh ; and 

5. The Oasis Trinytheos, or El-Bacharieh : — chief town, 

Zabou. 

1. The Great Oasis lies about 90 miles west of the 
Nile. It consists of an extensive depression of the soil, 
watered by a stream which rises nearer the village of 
Genah, on the north-west, and after traversing the oasis 
disappears in the sand. On its banks flourish groves of 
palms and acacias ; and the ground is clothed with a 
coarse verdure, which, after the rains, blooms with an 
attractive freshness. Springs are numerous, though all 
strongly impregnated with sulphur and iron, and so warm 
that the water cannot be drunk until it has been cooled 
in an earthen jar. They continue full, however, all the 
year ; a blessing which can only be appreciated by tra- 
vellers in the Desert. 

This is the first stage of the Darfur caravan, which 
starts from El-Siout, — about four days' journey. It is 
nearly the same distance from Farshout, the second 
stage. 

The principal ruins lie about seven miles from El- 
Khargeh, the metropolis of the oasis. They are situated 
in the midst of a rich wood of palm, acacia, and other 
trees, with a bright stream of water in front. The en- 
trance to the great temple (468 feet in length) is through 



TEMPLE OF AMUN-RA, 



315 



a dromos, or avenue, of ten columns on each side, now 
prostrate in hopeless chaos. The fagade of the temple, 
which was dedicated to Amun-Ra, is profusely em- 
bellished with colossal figures and hieroglyphic inscrip- 
tions. Through a finely sculptured doorway the traveller 
passes into a superb hall, 60 feet by 54, with twelve 
pillars, each 13 feet in circumference. A species of 
screen separates it from the second chamber, which 
measures 56 feet by 18, and is traced all over with figures 
and other carvings on stucco, which have once been 
painted. The third apartment. 31 feet by 29, is also 
ornamented ; and the carvings in the adytum or sanctu- 
ary, 20 feet by 8, are of the richest workmanship, though 
much blackened and defaced by smoke. 

To the east of the temple stand three detached pro- 
pyla, or gateways, of remarkable interest. Among the 
figures sculptured on the first propylon may be seen a 
colossal representation of Darius making offerings to 
Amun-Ra, Osiris, and Isis. On the roof are four eagles 
or vultures, with outstretched wings, painted red and blue. 
The carvings on the second are much defaced. On 
the third remains an inscription, in Greek letters, con- 
taining a rescript, in the second year of the Emperor 
Galba, enjoining certain reforms in the Egyptian ad- 
ministration. An avenue of sphinxes formerly led up to 
the temple in one direction. 

In the vicinity lies a superb necropolis, or cemetery, 
containing nearly two hundred tombs, each the receptacle 
of a number of mummies. Most of them are square, 
and crowned with domes, while the columns placed 
around, with their Doric and Corinthian capitals, show 



3 l6 



THE LITTLE OASIS. 



that they belong to a comparatively recent period. One 
large sepulchre is divided into aisles like a church ; and 
that it was used as such by the Christian exiles is clearly 
shown from the traces of saints painted on the walls. 
All bear the Greek cross, and the famous Egyptian 
hieroglyph, the crux ansata, or cross with a handle, whose 
original purport cannot be determined, but which the 
Christians naturally adopted as an emblem of their faith. 
The origin of these remarkable sepulchres is, to some 
extent, involved in obscurity. As they were designed 
for the reception of mummies, they can hardly be later 
than the first century, for the practice of embalming was 
discontinued soon after the introduction of Christianity ; 
and if they were constructed by the Romans, they must 
date from a period posterior to the conquests of Pompey, 
b.c. 52. 

There are several other remains in the vicinity of El- 
Khargeh, in which the relics of the Egyptian creed appear 
combined with the symbols of the Christian worship, 
leading to the inference that these edifices were repaired 
in the early ages of our faith after being abandoned by 
their ancient occupants.* 

2. The Little Oasis, or El-Dakkel, is a valley surrounded 
with rocks, about 12 miles long and 6 miles broad, four 
or five days' journey to the south-east of Siwah, which 
appears at one time to have been wholly cultivated, and 
to have fully repaid the labourer's toil. The remains are 
those of a Ptolemaic temple, several rock-tombs, a Chris- 
tian church, a necropolis, and a Roman triumphal arch. 
There are some hot springs, and especially one, 60 feet 

* Dr. Russell, " History of Ancient and Modern Egypt," p. 361. 



THE FOUNTAIN OF THE SUN. 



317 



deep, whose temperature varies several times in the 
twenty-four hours. The natives of this sequestered spot 
live chiefly upon rice, and their whole wealth consists of 
a few camels, donkeys, cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, and 
the ubiquitous date-palm. 

3. El- Siwah, the Ammonium, or the Northern Oasis, 
which has been repeatedly visited, lies to the west of the 
Natron Lakes, in lat. 29 12' north, and long. 2 6° 6' east, 
and about 120 miles from the Nile river. It extends three 
miles in length, and between eight and nine in breadth. 
A large portion of the soil blooms with the tufted crests of 
the palm, but in its gardens abound the pomegranate and 
the fig, the olive, the vine, the apricot, the plum, and even 
the apple. Tepid springs occur throughout the district, and 
a salt lake at Arachieh, which is regarded with supersti- 
tious veneration. The mythical Fountain of the Sun wells 
forth in a pleasant grove of date-trees at Siwah Shargieh. 
It was dedicated of old, as well as a small temple that 
stood upon its bank, to the great solar god, Amun-Ra. 
Travellers describe it as a small marsh, rather than a 
well, about 90 feet long and 60 feet broad. Its waters, 
which are remarkable for their transparency, undergo a 
diurnal change : they are warmer in the night than in 
the day, and every morning throw off a thick vapour or 
steam. The bubbles constantly rising to the surface 
reveal the chemical action which they undergo. 

The two chief villages in the oasis are Shargieh and 
Kebir : the population exceeds 8000. 

At Ummebeda, about two miles' distance from the rock- 
built town of Siwah, moulder the ruins of an Egyptian 
temple, which most antiquaries agree in regarding as 



3i8 



THE ORACLE OF A MM ON. 



the ancient " Temple of Ammon." The vestiges of a 
triple enclosure, enormous blocks of granite lying pros- 
trate, and portions still standing of the walls and gate- 
way, prove that it must have been a superb and massive 
pile. The only chamber which can now be distinctly 
traced was 112 feet in length; the whole area occupies 
a rectangular space about 360 feet by 300. The decora- 
tions are of the later Egyptian character, and embody 
representations of the ram-headed god, processions of 
priests, councils of deities, and of other objects common 
to these sacred structures \ but time, and, perhaps, human 
barbarism have dealt so violently with these interesting 
ruins that enough remains to stimulate — far too little to 
gratify — the antiquary's legitimate curiosity. 

Minutoli believes this temple to have been erected by 
Nekt-har-hebi (Xectanebus I., about 387-369 B.C.), in 
honour of the god Khnum, who was here identified or 
blended with Amun — Amun Khnumis, or Chembis. 
He was the great water-deity, and consequently presided 
over the water to which the formation and conservation 
of the oasis were due. Here was the celebrated " Oracle 
of Ammon" — the " Jupiter-Ammon " of the Greeks — 
which obtained so world-wide a renown that Alexander 
the Great marched through the Desert to consult its priests 
(b.c. 331). The response was delivered either by some 
movement of the statue of the god, or by the appearance 
of a spirit or phantom. When it first rose into repute is 
uncertain ; it fell into decay after the establishment of 
Christianity. 

The antiquities of the Siwah Oasis are very numerous. 
Among them may be noted a series of rock-tombs, on a 



IN THE HEART OF THE DESERT 



319 



magnificent scale, excavated in a neighbouring mountain. 
Temple after temple, catacombs, churches, and convents 
— all in ruins, but all hallowed by sacred associations — 
spread far away to the westward, and testify to the exist- 
ence in this region of a large population at some remote 
period. At a short distance from the sacred lake of 
Arachieh are situated the remains of a beautiful Doric 
temple, which, occurring in the heart of the Libyan Desert, 
cannot fail to excite the traveller's wonder. Other ancient 
relics are crumbling among the sands of these dreary 
wastes, whose origin and history will never be known to 
man ; oblivion has descended upon them. 

Of the other oases it seems unnecessary to speak. 
They resemble the more celebrated in their physical 
features ; their antiquities are of little interest. 




/ 




APPENDIX. 




THE SUEZ CANAL. 

H E Isthmus of Suez, as every reader well knows, is a 
neck of land, about seventy-two miles wide in its nar- 
rowest part, which extends from the Mediterranean on 
the north to the Gulf of Suez on the south, and con- 
nects the continents of Asia and Africa. It is a desert 
of sand and sandstone, whose dreariness is occasionally relieved 
by a salt lake, or saline swamp, but which is almost entirely desti- 
tute of fresh water. The principal interest, however, which, from 
a remote antiquity, has attached to the region, lies in the possibility 
of opening up a communication through it by means of a ship-canal, 
so as to save the long and often dangerous voyage round the Cape 
of Good Hope. The route to India, so far as passengers, and to a 
moderate extent merchandise, are concerned, has of late years been 
greatly shortened by the construction of a line of rail ; but it was 
obvious to every observer that a ship-canal would be an infinitely 
more important boon to commerce. 

It is a well known fact that, in ancient times, an indirect line of 
canal did connect the two seas, the Mediterranean and the Red 
Sea. According to Herodotus, it was partially executed by Pharaoh 
Necho, or Nechao (see p. 49) ; but by whom it was completed we 
can only conjecture ; some authorities say Darius, others (much 
more probably) the Ptolemys. It began at about a mile and a half 
north of Suez, and struck in a north-westerly direction, availing 



322 



APPENDIX. 



itself of a series of natural hol- 
lows, to Bubastis, on the Pe- 
lusiac or eastern branch of 
the Nile Its length was 92 
miles (60 of which were ex- 
cavated by human hands), its 
width from 10S to 165 feet, 
and its depth 15 feet. After 
a while it became silted up 
with sand; was restored by 
Trajan; was again choked 
and rendered useless ; was 
re-opened after the Saracenic 
conquest of Egypt by Amrou 
the Arab general, and named 
the " Canal of the Prince of 
the Faithful;" and finally 
filled with the never-resting 
sands in 767 A. D. 

Upwards of ten centuries 
passed before any attempt 
was made to renew a com- 
munication between the two 
seas. Then the idea occurred 
to the ingenious mind of Bon- 
aparte ; but as his engineers 
erroneously reported that 
there was a difference of level 
between the Mediterranean 
and the Red Sea to the extent 
of thirty feet, he suffered it to drop. In 1847 a scientific com- 
mission, appointed by England, France, and Austria, ascertained 
that the two seas had exactly the same mean level. The only 
noticeable distinction was, that at the one end, there is a tide of 
6 feet 6 inches, and 1 foot 6 inches at the other. Mr. Robert 
Stephenson, the great English engineer, coming to a similar result 
in 1853, declared that no navigable canal could be constructed, and 




CHART OF SUEZ CANAL. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



323 



he then laid down the existing railroad between Cairo and Suez as 
a substitute. 

There arose, however, at this time a Frenchman, with all the 
Slan and ingenuity of his countrymen, and an indomitable persever- 
ance peculiarly his own, who came to a different conclusion. 
Having some influence at the Egyptian Court, he obtained a con- 
cession in 1854 from Said Pasha, then Viceroy of Egypt, for the 
making of a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. The Sultan's assent 
was less easily procured, owing to the jealousy which had arisen 
between English and French political interests. It was not until 
1858 that M. Ferdinand de Lesseps found himself in a position 
to appeal to the public for support. A company was then formed 
with a capital of ^8,000,000. In 1859 the work was begun, and 
by December 1864 the fresh- water canal, required for the sup- 
ply of the labourers on the ship- canal, was completed. All, how- 
ever, did not go on smoothly. Difficulties arose between Ismail 
Pasha, Said Pasha's successor, respecting the concessions originally 
granted to the company. The dispute was referred to the Emperor 
of the French as arbitrator, who decided that the company should 
give up some important privilege, and receive in lieu thereof a total 
sum of ^4,000,000, with a strip of land, about forty-eight yards 
wide on each side of the canal. The ship-canal was then proceeded 
with; a variety of ingenious machinery being invented by the 
French engineers to meet the exigencies of their novel and magni- 
ficent enterprise. In 1867 an additional capital of ^4,000,000 was 
raised; and on the 17th of November 1869 it was formally opened 
for navigation in the presence of a host of illustrious personages, 
representing every European State. Since that time a considerable 
number of vessels has passed through it; and though the depth 
requires to be made uniform, and the canal to be widened, before it 
can be fully successful, enough has been done to establish a useful 
communication between the two seas. Whether it will ever prove 
successful in a pecuniary sense is, however, a very different question. 

There passed through the canal * from the day of opening to the 
30th of June 1870— a period of seven months and a half — 363 ships. 
Of this number 130 passed through during the four days of the open- 

* Martin's e< Statesman's Year-Book," 1871, pp. 617, 618. 



324 



APPENDIX. 



ing festival without paying dues ; leaving 233 ships, of an aggregate 
burthen of 195,428 tons, which used the canal for purely commercial 
purposes. The shipping belonged to different nations, as under: — 



Nationalities. 


Ships. 


Tonnage. 


British 


'53 


134,712 




35 


33,804 




19 


12,760 




9 


5,948 




7 


3,717 




4 


2,548 




3 


732 




1 


480 




1 


681 




1 


37 




233 


195,428 



Exclusive of the shipping enumerated in this table, there passed 
through the canal small craft of a total burthen of 6498 tons ; so 
that dues were paid altogether upon 201,926 tons. The total re- 
ceipts of the seven months and a half amounted to ^129,784 — a 
sum insufficient to discharge the interest on the obligations of the 
Canal Company.* 

The width of the canal, on the average^ was intended to be 330 
feet; its depth about 20 to 26 feet. It begins at Port Said, on the 
Mediterranean, where an artificial harbour has been constructed ; 
proceeds to Kantara; traverses the Abu Ballah Lake; at Ismaila 
enters Lake Timseh ; thence to Serapeum ; passes through the 
Bitter Lakes ; and terminates at Suez. 

Its construction has called into existence two new towns — Port 
Said, which M. de Lesseps has called the " Rendezvous Maritime de 
l'Occident et de l'Orient," and which has now a population of more 
than 10,000 inhabitants; and Ismaila, which, from its central posi- 

* The receipts of the company for the last quarter of the year 1870 amounted 
to ,£77,614; the number of vessels passing through the canal being, for the three 
months respectively, 39, 42, and 69. For the previous nine months of the year 
the receipts were .£177,875 ; making a total for the whole year of ,£255,488. 
From the 1st to the 20th of January last, 64 vessels had passed through the 
canal. 



THE SUEZ CANAL. 



325 



tion has become the principal town of the Isthmus. It is described 
as "one of the prettiest and most charming spots imaginable. Its 
trim houses, well kept streets, and beautiful little gardens, form a 
characteristic picture of French taste and neatness." 

From the writer just quoted we learn that the so-called " Bitter 
Lakes " were an extensive depression in the desert soil, about 
twenty-five miles long, from a quarter of a mile to six miles wide, 
and of an average depth in the centre of from eight to thirty feet 
below the sea-level. The bottom in the deepest parts was covered 
with a very thick saline deposit, and the whole was, in fact, a kind 
of salt-water marsh. " The high ground on the eastern side is dotted 
with tamarisk shrubs, forming, with the earth and sand at their 
roots, high mounds, which at a distance have so much the appear- 
ance of trees that the French have given it the name of * Foret. ' 
The sandy, gravelly surface all about is strewn with shells, present- 
ing almost the appearance of a sea-beach. Some people consider 
this depression of the Bitter Lakes to have at one time formed the 

head of the Red Sea The narrowest and shallowest point in 

this depression serves to divide it into two unequal parts, that on 
the north being called the ' Grand Bassin,' and that on the south the 
4 Petit Bassin,' 1 des Lacs Amers.' The former is about fifteen miles 
long, from five to six miles broad, and of an average depth of from 
twenty-five to thirty feet, the deepest part being covered with the salt- 
pan already mentioned ; the latter is about ten miles long, two miles 
broad, and with an average depth of fifteen feet." 

We have already said that much remains to be done before the 
Suez Canal will, from a maritime point of view, be a full and entire 
success. The present width at the bottom is only seventy-two feet, 
being utterly insufficient to allow vessels of large tonnage to pass 
each other wherever they happen to meet ; and consequently it is 
at certain points only — namely, between Lake Timseh and the 
Bitter Lakes — that this can be accomplished. How great an impedi- 
ment this must be to the free navigation of the canal the reader will 
easily understand. 

It also remains to be seen whether the harbour at Port Said can 
be kept free from sand, and whether the canal-banks can be pre- 
vented from falling in, owing to the " wash" of the heavy vessels. 
(295) . ' " 99 



326 



APPENDIX. 



On these points we apprehend the chief difficulty will be found in 
the enormous expense of the requisite engineering works ; but con- 
sidering that it shortens the distance from England to India by one- 
half* one would suppose that the English Government must have 
a vital interest in the maintenance of the canal, and English mer- 
chants an all-important inducement to provide the necessary funds. 



ON THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 

''And the learned walls with hieroglyphics graced.*' — Pope. 

So many allusions are made in the preceding pages to the Egyptian 
hieroglyphics, that it seems desirable to afford the youthful reader 
some explanation of their character and meaning. 

The term "hieroglyphics" — from the Greek iepos and y\v<pco — 
simply means "sacred sculptures;" but it is now applied to those 
representations of real or imaginary objects by which the Egyptians 
expressed language. It is supposed that they employed in all about 
one thousand of these ; and by their means they were enabled to 
convey their ideas to others with extraordinary fulness and accuracy. 
Their variety is very great. All kinds of quaint ideal forms — the 
celestial spheres, animals, fishes, reptiles, the different parts of the 
human body, costume, works of art and science, — all these were 
made vehicles of thought and sentiment. They were engraved in 
relief, or sunk below the surface, on walls and public monuments, 
and similar permanent materials ; or they were traced in outline 
with a pen of reed on wood, papyri, and slabs of stone. The former 
class of hieroglyphics are sometimes embellished with colours and 
used as ornamentation ; sometimes they are shaded, as it were, of 
one uniform hue ; and sometimes they are sculptured and plain. 
When variously coloured, they are called polychrome ; when shaded, 
monochrome ; when traced in outline on the papyri, linear. They 
are either arranged in columns perpendicularly, or in horizontal 
rows, or scattered about the picture they are intended to describe. 

* By the canal route, the distance between England and India is reduced to 
7500 miles. 



ON THE EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 



327 



But it should be remembered that they almost invariably face all in 
the same direction ; and when attached to figures, in the direction 
of those figures. They form a curious and even fantastic written 
language, and represent in their various uses the earliest processes 
in the invention of writing. 

Hieroglyphics, according to their prevailing applications, are 
arranged in three great classes : (1.) Symbolic; (2.) Hieratic ; (3.) De- 
motic (or popular). They are also divided into Ideographs, or those 
which represent "ideas;" and Phonetics, or those which represent 
"sounds." 

1. Symbolic. These may be classified in three groups. First, 
the " iconographic," or " ideographic," where symbols are used in 
direct imitation of natural objects — the course which would suggest 
itself to men in the earliest stage of written thought. Thus, Q a 
circle, would naturally represent the sun ; Q a crescent, the moon ; 

a male figure, man ; *^R^ a ^og, canine animals, and the like. 
jj A female figure stands for woman. Put a man and a woman 
together, and you convey the idea of " human kind." After a while 
men would begin to make use of these natural objects to convey 
some figurative meaning, and thus create a second group of symbolic 
hieroglyphics — namely, the " anaglyphic," or "tropical." For 
instance: the dog is faithful, and the symbol "dog" was accord- 
ingly employed to represent fidelity ; the jackal is cunning, and 



J^^s, therefore conveyed the idea of craft. Similarly, a leg caught 
in a trap means deceit ; a youth with a finger in his mouth, an 
infant ; a woman beating a tambourine, joy. In time, to prevent 
the accumulation of symbols to an inconvenient extent, one hiero- 
glyph was made to represent a number of collateral ideas. A seated 
male figure, which originally signified man, now indicated all the 
functions and relationships of man — as brother, father, priest, 
governor, labourer — the exact meaning being ascertained by its con- 
nection with the phonetic symbols preceding it. The circle O thus 
came to represent all precious stones ; and two ^ e S s walking, 

all locomotive actions. It is said that this class of symbols amounts 
to about 175 ; but further research will probably increase the num- 
ber. The third group, "allegorical," or " enigmatic," includes those 
objects employed conventionally as emblems of other objects. In 




,28 



APPENDIX. 



this way, two water '-plants, of slightly different form, stand for Upper 
and Lower Egypt ; a hawk, for the god Anubis. 

Another class of hieroglyphics is the "phonetic," in which the 
sign represents, not an object, but a sound. The Egyptian sylla- 
barium consisted of about one hundred and thirty of these signs, and 
was constructed, according to Champollion, on the following prin- 
ciple : — The figure representing a letter was the likeness of some 
animal or other object whose name began with that letter. For 
instance : our word eagle begins with E. If we drew an eagle, and 
always used that figure instead of the letter, we should employ a 
phonetic hieroglyph. The initial letter of the Egyptian word for 
eagle (ahorn) is A ; in the Egyptian alphabet the figure of an eagle, 
therefore, stands for A. But each figure represented, not only a 
letter, but a syllable. Twenty-nine letters constituted the Egyptian 
alphabet at the best period of the language, or from the fourth to 
the twenty- first dynasty ; and twenty- nine familiar objects repre- 
sented these letters and their corresponding monosyllables : — 



Symbol. Represented by 

Ad an eagle. 

Aa an arm. 

A a a reed. 

Ba a heron. 

Ba a leg. 

Fi a cerastes. 

Ga an eaglet. 

Ga a vase. 

Gi a viper. 

Ha a leg of a stool. 

Ha a house. 

Ha a papyrus plant. 

Ha fore-part of" a lion. 

Hi twisted cord. 

Hu a tusk. 

Hu a club. 

He two reeds. 

In two oblique strokes. 

Ka a bowl. 

KHa water-lily leaf. 

KHa a mormorus fish. 

KHa a mace. 

KHi a sieve. 

KHu, or Au . . a calf. 
KHu, ox Au ..a garment. 
Lu, or Ru, ... .a lion. 

Lu, ox Ru a mouth. 

Ma a pen. 



Symbol. Represented by 

Ma a weight. 

Ma .• a hole. 

Mu an owl. 

Mu a vulture. 

Na a water-line. 



Na a red crown. 

Nu a vase. 

Pa a flying goose. 

Pu a shutter. 

Qa a knee. 

Qa a stand. 

Sa top of a quiver. 

Sa a goose. 

Sa a woof. 

Su a reed. 

Su a bolt. 

S(eu) or . .back of seat or chair. 

SHa a garden. 

SHa part of dress. 

SHi a pool. 

Ta a spindle. 

Ti a hand. 

j,. 1 a twisted cord with 

2 "( two loops. 

Tu a muller. 

Ui a duckling. 

( a cord curved or 
\ twisted. 



Ui 



About ninety additional signs were added to the preceding after 
the twenty-first dynasty. 



OX THE EGYPTIAX HIEROGLYPHICS. 



3 2 9 



It should be added that very often the syllable was written in 
full — that is, both the initial letter and the vowel were given; as 
ha by ha and a horn (a papyrus plant, and an eagle). 

This explanation is necessarily imperfect ; but it will enable the 
reader to form some idea of the mode in which the written language 
of the Egyptians was originated and developed. 

2. The Hieratic character may be described as abridged hiero- 
glyphs, reduced into a kind of cursive or mnning hand, with no very 
exact resemblance to their original form. As its name implies, it 
was confined to the priests, and was employed for state papers, 
religious treatises, rituals, and legal documents ; but also at a later 
period for all records and memoranda of a public and private charac- 
ter. The Hieratic language prevailed from the era of the fourth 
dynasty to the third century after Christ. 

3. The third class is the Demotic, or "popular" — also called the 
Enchorial ("of the country") — and was that which embodied the 
language of the common people. It was a still more cursive modifi- 
cation of the hieroglyphics, and, being simple in form, was univer- 
sally employed for contracts, public documents, and, as the know- 
ledge of hieroglyphics decreased, even for religious matters. It pre- 
vailed from the beginning of the sixth century before Christ to the 
third century of the Christian era, when the early Christians intro- 
duced the Greek alphabet. 

The clew by which Dr. Young and Champollion were guided 
independently to the supposed principles of hieroglyphic interpreta- 
tion was the famous Rosetta Stone. This monument was discovered 
in 1799. It bore a trilingual inscription on its surface, — an inscrip- 
tion in Hieroglyphical, Demotic, and Greek characters, purporting 
to be a decree of the priests of Egypt in council at Memphis in 
honour of Ptolemy V. (about B.C. 196). A close investigation of 
these characters — first by Dr. Young in 181 8, and afterwards by 
Champollion in 1822 — led to the adoption of certain rules of inter- 
pretation, which, though their accuracy was seriously impugned by 
the late Sir George Cornewall Lewis, have been laboriously illus- 
trated by Lepsius, Bunsen, Jablonski, Hincks, Birch, Goodwin, 
Heath, Chabus, and others. 

The invention of hieroglyphics, called Neter Kharu, or "divine 



33° 



APPENDIX. 



words," was ascribed to the god Thoth, the Egyptian Logos, "lord 
of the hieroglyphs." Pliny attributes it to Menes. Hieroglyphics 
were not understood by the lower classes, to whom they were as 
great a mystery as our printed characters are to the peasant who 
can neither read nor write. 

For fuller particulars on this interesting subject I refer the reader 
to the article " Hieroglyphics" in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica;" 
Champollion, " Grammaire Egyptienne" (Paris, 1841-61) ; Sir G. 
Cornewall Lewis, " xVstronomy of the Ancients, " chap. vi. ; Birch, 
"Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphics;" "Edinburgh 
Review" for July 1S62 ; D. I. Heath, M.A., "The Exodus 
Papyri;" and Bunsen, "Egypt's Place in the World's History" 
(translated by C. J. Cotterell, M.A.). 



THE RAMESSIDS. 

According to some authorities, the chronology of the Ramessids 
is given as follows : — Ramesses, or Rameses I., chief of the 19th 
dynasty; Rameses II., the Great, who reigned sixty-eight years; 
Rameses III. (the Rhampsinitus of Herodotus), chief of the 20th 
dynasty, and the Rameses of Medinet- Aboo ; Rameses IV. ; Ram- 
eses V. ; Rameses VI., who lived, it is supposed, about 1240 B.C. ; 
and so on, down to Rameses XIII. 



INDEX. 



Aah-mes II., his prosperous reign in 
Egypt, 50 ; his reason for breaking his 
alliance with Polycrates of Samos, 
3°- 

Abbas Pasha, administration of Egypt 
under, 70-73. 

Abou-Seir, pyramid at, erected by kings 
of the Elephantine dynasty, 41 ; the 
rock of, 302, 303. 

Abou-Simbel, the sculptures and pic- 
tures at, 293 ; temple at, 295-300. 

Abydus, ruins at, 176. 

Acacia, or sont tree of the Arabs, 27, 28. 

Albert N'yanza, the, one of the reser- 
voirs of the Nile, 79. 

Alexander the Great, his conquest of 
Egypt, 53, 54; his plans for develop- 
ing its resources, 55. 

Alexandria founded by Alexander the 
Great, 55 ; destruction of the Sera- 
peum at, 65 ; wealth and population 
of, 92 ; its architectural ornaments, 
93, 94 ; picture of its present aspect, 
94 ; its Oriental features, 97; a scene 
at its railway-station, 99 ; its ancient 
condition, its associations, 100; its 
religious feuds, 101 ; its decay, 102 ; 
its remarkable ruins, 104 ; the so- 
called Pompey's Pillar, 104-106 ; 
Cleopatra's Needles, 107, 108 ; site 
of the modern city described, 109. 

A.H, Mehemet, his crusade against the 
Mamelukes, 69, 70; incidents of his 
pashalik, 70. 

Almehs, or Almees,the, Egyptian danc- 
ing-girls, their costume described, 234, 
235 ; their manners and customs, 
235. 

Amenemha I., king of Egypt, rebuilds 
Heliopolis, 41. 



Amenemha III., his great erections 
pointed out, 42 ; his famous Laby- 
rinth described, 42, 43. 

Amunophis II., his capture of Nineveh, 
44. 

Amyrtaeus, of Sais, the only king of 

his dynasty, 52. 
Animal life of Egypt, described, 28-32. 
Animal-worship in Egypt, its origin 

and influence, 22-25, 37j 38. 
Annos, or Ormos, king of Egypt, his 

pyramid at the Mastabat-el-Faroun, 

Antinoopolis, city of, founded by the 

Emperor Hadrian, 63. 
Apis, the Egyptian bull-god, worship 

of, 154. 

Apries, king of Egypt, his prosperous 
rule, 49, 50. 

Arachieh, the sacred lake, and its tem- 
ple, 317. 

Arians and Athanasians, disputes of, 

at Alexandria, 101. 
Arrian, Greek pentameter by, quoted, 

Art in Egypt, influence of the Nile 
upon, 90. 

Assouan, or Syene, in ancient times, 
250, 251 ; view from the cliffs around 
it, 251 ; its celebrated quarries, 251. 

Athor, the goddess, worship and sym- 
bolical representations of, 183. 

Aurelian, the Emperor, his defeat of 
Zenobia, 63. 

Bab-el-Melook, or Valley of the 
Tombs of the Kings and Priests, 
near Thebes, 206-210, 211-213. 

Bahr-el-Abiad, the, or White Nile, its 
course described, 80. 



332 



INDEX. 



Bahr-el-Azrek, the, or Blue Nile, its 
course described, 83. 

Baker, Sir Samuel, quoted, 79. 

Bartlett, the Nile-Boat of, quoted, 243. 

Belzoni, quoted, 140, 213 ; his explora- 
tion of the Pyramids, 136, 140. 

Beni-hassan, peculiar situation of the 
Tombs at, 167, 168 ; their antiquity, 
168 ; their interior described, 168 ; 
wall-painting representing a remark- 
able procession at, 168-171 ; Egyptian 
history depicted by Egyptian artists, 
172 ; the interior of the Tombs re- 
garded as an illustration of ancient 
Egyptian life, 172-175. 

Beyt-el-Wellee, rock-temple at, 282, 283. 

Boats in use on the Nile, described, 88, 
89. 

Boulak, or Old Cairo, view from, 111. 
Bubastis, great feast of the goddess, 

described, 89. 
Bubastite dynasty of Egypt, 47. 
Bull, the sacred, Egyptian worship of, 

23, 24. 

Burckhardt, the Nubian traveller, quot- 
ed, 287, 291. 

Caesar, de Bello Civili, quoted, 58. 

Cailliaud, Voyage au Meroe, quoted, 308. 

Cairo, city of, picturesque character of 
its streets, in, 112 ; their purely Ori- 
ental aspect described, 112; situation 
of the city, 112, 113; its history sum- 
marized, 113; the citadel, and the 
prospect from it, 113, 114; the Cai- 
rene minarets, 117, 118; life in the 
streets portrayed, 118; the dancing 
dervishes, 118 -123; the Cairene 
donkeys, 123, 124 ; interior of an 
Oriental harem, 124-127. 

Cambyses, king of Persia, his invasion 
and conquest of Egypt, 50; his mad- 
ness and death, 51, note; his treat- 
ment of the sacred Apis, 154; plun- 
ders Thebes, 191. 

Cape of Good Hope, discovery of the 
passage round the, 66. 

Cassius, Avidius, subdues a revolt in 
„ Egypt, 63. 

Cataract of the Nile, the first, 270, 271 ; 

ascent of, described, 272-274. 
Champollion, on the Typhoneion, 184 ; 

his Lettres stir VEgypte, quoted, 

198, 239, 246. 
Christianity, rise of, in Egypt, 64, 10 1 ; 

its struggle with, and conquest over 

Paganism, 102, 103. 
Cleopatra, her marriage to Ptolemy 

Philometor, 58, 59 ; fascinates Julius 

Caesar, who declares her Queen of 

Egypt, 59 ; her connection with 

Antony, and her death, narrated, 

59-61. 



Cleopatra's Needles, description of, 
107, 108. 

Climate of Egypt, its peculiarities, 32. 
Colossi, the two, of Thebes, described, 
200-203. 

Crocodile Bird [Trochilus] of the Nile, 
the, 31. 

Cuminus, in the Tour du Monde, 

quoted, 235. 
Curzon, Monasteries i?L the Levant, 

quoted, 257. 

Dahabeeyah, a, or Nile-boat, a voyage 
in, 163, 164. 

Dakkeh, temple of Thoth at, 287, 288. 

Date Palm in Egypt, the, 27. 

Death, Egyptian ideas concerning, 210. 

Debodeh, the scenery of the Nile near, 
280, 281. 

Delta, the, landscape of, 110. 

Dendera, the temple of, described, 177- 
179 ; its great portico, 180 ; its dimen- 
sions, 183; account of other remains 
at, 183, 184; the Typhoneion, 184. 

Dendour, Romano-Egyptian temple at, 
283. 

Denon, Baron, his Voyage en Egypte, 

quoted, 234. 
Derr, the temple at, 291, 292. 
Dervishes, the dancing, their peculiar 

ceremony described, 118-123. 
Desert, the struggle of the Nile with 

the, 77, 78. 
Diodorus, the historian, his account of 

Rameses III., 190. 
Djebel Aboufodde, the caverns of, 176. 
Dodekarchy, the, or Twelve Kings, 

their rule in Egypt, 48, 49. 
Donkeys of Cairo, the, their character- 
istics, 123, 124. 
Donne, W. B., quoted, 229, 230. 
Drumann, on the worship of the bull 

in Egypt, 24. 

Edfoo, the ancient city of, 240, 241 ; 
its two temples, 241, 242. 

Edmonstone, Sir A., quoted, 313. 

Egypt, its attractiveness for the student 
and traveller, 13, 14; its remote anti- 
quity, 14, 15 ; its monotonous natural 
features, 15 ; its position in regard to 
other countries, 15, 16; its physical 
geography, 16-19 ; etymology of its 
name, 19; its nomes, or districts, in 
the olden time, 19-22; its worship of 
animals, 22-25; Roman divisions of, 
25 ; its general aspect, 25-27; its soil 
and vegetation, 27, 28 ; its animal 
life, 28-32 ; its climate, 33 ; the 
khamsin in, 33; its present population, 
33, 34 ; its income, weights and 
measures, 34; its history under the 
Pharaohs, 36-51 ; its history under 



INDEX. 



333 



the Persians, 51-53; under its Greek 

kings, 53-61 ; under the Romans, 62- 

65 ; annals of modern Egypt, 66-73. 
Egyptians, manners and customs of the 

ancient, described by Herodotus, 23, 

24, 51, 52. 
Egyptian Queens, tombs of the, near 

Medinet-Aboo, 216. 
'Eilythia, or El-Kab, rock-tombs of, 

238-240. 

Elephantine, island of, its architectural 
ruins, 253, 254; its ancient history, 254. 

El Ghizeh, pyramids of, 30. 

El Mesaourat, ruined temples at, 308, 
3°9- 

Epistrategiae, the, of Egypt, under the 

Romans, 62. 
Erment, the ancient Hermo?ithis, ruins 

of, 231, 232. 
Esneh, ruined temple at, 233, 234 ; 

rendezvous and residence of the 

Almehs, 234, 235. 
Ethiopia, origin of the name, 304. 

Faioum, the valley of, multitude of its 
roses, 26. 

Fairholt, Up the Nile, quoted, 221, 232. 
Fergusson, History of Architecture, 

quoted, 134, 142, 168. 
Firmus, his assumption of Egyptian 

sovereignty, 64. 

Gebel-Adha, the rock-temple at, 301. 
Gebel-Ain, site of ancient Crocodilo- 
polis, 232. 

Germanicus, his visit to Thebes, 46; 
his consultation with the bull Apis, 
62, 63. 

Ghirsche Housseyn, ruins of a temple 
at, 283, 284. 

Gibbon, Decline and Fall, quoted, 64. 

Gordon, Lady Duff, Letters from 
Egypt, quoted, 118. 

Great Oasis, the, description of, 314; 
its great temple, 314, 315 ; its necro- 
polis, 315, 316 ; its remaining monu- 
ments, 316. 

Greek era of Egyptian history, 53-61. 

Greek influence in Egypt, rise and 
spread of, 53, 54. 

Grote, History of Greece, quoted, 50. 

Hadjur Silsileh, the pass of, 243. 
Hadrian, the Emperor, founds the city 

of Antinoopolis, 63. 
Hamilton, Aegyptiaca, quoted, 179, 

246, 248, 252. 
Harem, scene in an Oriental, 124-127. 
Harpers' Tomb, the, in the "Valley of 

the Tombs of the Kings," 214, 215. 
Hecateus, visit of, to Thebes, ior, 192. 
Heeren, H istorical Researches, quoted 

256, 261, 264, 310. 



Heliopolis, rebuilt by Amenemha L, 
41; road from Cairo to, 156; its re- 
mains described, 156; its historical 
associations, 156, 157 ; its sacredness 
in the olden time, 157 ; its scanty 
relics, 158, 159. _ 

Herodotus, the historian, on the wor- 
ship of the sacred bull, 23, 24; his 
visit to Egypt, 51, 52; quoted, 135, 
141, 148, 266. 

Hieroglyphics, their origin, meaning, 
and interpretation — see Appendix. 

Homer, quoted, 185, 275, 316. 

Hopley, Howard, Under the Palms, 
quoted, 26, 27 ; on the birds of Egypt, 
29-31 ; description of the railway- 
station at Alexandria, 99 ; on the 
donkeys and donkey-drivers of Cairo, 
123, 124; on the ruins of Thebes, 186. 

Hor-em-heb, his history told by the 
monuments, 244. 

Ibreem, history of the castle of, 292. 
Iseion, the, at Memphis, reference to, 

Isis, worship of the goddess, introduced 
into the Roman cities, 63 ; her name 
and attributes explained, 268, 269; 
her temple at Abou-Simbel, 298-300. 

Ismail Pasha, his administration of 
Egypt, 73 ; conquest of Nubia by 
Ismail, son of Mehemet Ali, 278, 279. 

Ismaila, on the Suez Canal, 324. 

Josephus, Antiquities, quoted, 157. 
Jupiter Ammon, oracle of, described by 

Diodorus, 309. 
Juvenal, the Roman poet, banished to 

the Libyan Oases, 313. 

Kalabsche, rock-temples at, described, 
281, 282. 

Karnak, the modern village of, 216-218 ; 
Palace of the Kings at, 218-221 ; 
sculpture representing Sheshonk at, 
221 ; general description of the ruins, 
222. 

Keble, The Christian Year, quoted, 
202, 275. 

Keneh, scenery of the plain of, 176. 
Kennard, Travels in Egypt, quoted, 97. 
Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, quoted, 80, 

171, 192, 292. 
Khamsin, the, effects of, described, 33. 
Khnum, the divinity of the waters, 318. 
Kinglake, A. W., Edthen, quoted, 144, 

.145- 

Kingsley, Canon, Hypatia, quoted, 102. 
Kings of Egypt, the, why they erected 

their mausoleums or pyramids, 130, 

I 3 I - 

Koum-Ombos, ruined temples of, 246- 
248. 



334 



INDEX. 



Labyrinth, the, of Amenemha, de- 
scribed by Herodotus, 42, 43. 

Lepsius, Reise Egypten, quoted, 155. 

Lindsay, Lord, Letters from Holy 
Lands, quoted, 270. 

Little Oasis, the, or El-Dakkel, descrip- 
tion of, 316, 317. 

Longfellow, quoted, 35, 163. 

Lucan, Pharsalia,^ quoted, 74. 

Luxor, modern village of, described, 
222, 228 ; temple and monuments at, 
225-229. 

Madox, Excursions in Egypt, quoted, 
107. 

Mamelukes, the, Egypt under the sway 

of, 66, 67 ; their massacre by Mehe- 

met Ali, 69, 70. 
Manetho, the Egyptian annalist, on the 

birth-place of Moses, 55. 
Mariette, his discoveries in connection 

with the sphinx, 146, 147. 
Marriage, an Egyptian, description of, 

236-238. 

Martineau, Harriet, Eastern Life, 
quoted, 77, 78, 106, 130, 197, 198, 201, 
202, 238, 244, 245, 288, 289, 294. 

Mastabat-el-Faroun, pyramid at, erected 
by Annos, 41. 

Mausoleums, the royal, of Egypt, how 
and why erected, 130, 131. 

Medinet-Aboo, temple at, 204. 

Melly, G., Khartoum, or the Two Niles, 
quoted, 251. 

Memphis, site of, 148 ; foundation and 
early history, 148; its decay, 149; its 
Triad, 149 ; its Serapeion described, 
149-154 ; its Iseion, 154, 154 ; its 
statue of Rameses, 155 ; Biblical as- 
sociations of Memphis, 155. 

Memphite dynasty of Egypt, 38-40. 

Men, or Menes, existence of, doubtful, 
36, 37- 

Menxaleh, Lake, the papyrus of, 26. _ 
Merien-ptah, the Biblical Pharaoh, in- 
troduces the worship of Seth or Satan, 
46. 

Meroe, ancient kingdom of, 304, 305. 
Meroe, city of, its position and ruins, 
305- 

Milman, Dean, History of Latin Chris- 
tianity, quoted, 101. 

Milton, Paradise Lost, quoted, 74, 148. 

Mimosa Nilotica, the, 27, 28. 

Mnevis, the sacred ox of Heliopolis, 
worshipped by the Egyptians, 24, 25. 

Modern history of Egypt, 66-73. 

Moore, Thomas, the poet, quoted, 249, 
301. 

Mosques of Cairo, described by Lady 

Duff Gordon, 118. 
Mud of the Nile, the, described by St. 

Hilaire, 27. 



Nechao, King of Egypt, his victories in 
Judah and Assyria, 49 ; his engineer- 
ing and naval operations, 49. 

NectanebusIL, thelastof the Pharaohs, 
defeated by the Persians, 53. 

Niger, Pescennius, declares himself 
Emperor of Egypt, 63. 

Nile, the river, its great struggle against 
the forces of the Desert, 77, 78 ; dis- 
covery of its sources accomplished, 
78, 79 ; the course of the White Nile 
described, 80; course of the Blue 
Nile, 81 ; progress of the united 
stream traced to the Mediterranean, 
83, 84 ; its average fall and velocity, 
84 ; its total length, 85 ; beneficial 
influences of its waters, 85 ; processes 
of irrigation, 86 ; worshipped as a 
god, 87, 88 ; the river-boats described, 
88, 89 ; festivals and pageants held 
on the Nile, 89 ; its animal and vege- 
table life, 89 90 ; origin of the word 
Nilus, 90 ; influence of the Nile on 
Greek art, 90, 91 ; scenery of its 
banks, 163, 167. 

Nile Valley, the, its dimensions, and 
general character of its scenery, 16, 

Nilometer, the, of Memphis, for gaug- 
ing the ebb and flow of the river, 154, 
155, 164. 

Nilus, the god, origin and festival of, 
87 ; a statue of, described, 87, 88. 

Nomes, the, or ancient districts of 
Egypt, enumerated, 19-22. 

Northern Oasis, the, or El Siwah, its 
situation and warm springs, 317 ; its 
numerous antiquities, 318, 319. 

Nubia, origin of the name, 275 ; extent 
and history of the country, 276, 277 ; 
manners and customs of its inhabit- 
ants, 277, 278 ; principal towns, 278 ; 
its conquest by Ismail Pasha, 278, 279. 

Oases, their general characteristics de- 
scribed, 312, 313; their literary and 
historical associations, 313; the five 
chief oases enumerated, 314 ; the 
Great Oasis, 314-316 ; the Little 
Oasis, 316, 317; the Northern, 317- 

Obelisk, the, of Osirtesen I., 158, 159 ; 
some celebrated obelisks enumerated, 
160. 

Osirei, the sarcophagus of, in the Soane 
Museum, 213. 

Osiris, the god, legendary history of, 
265 ; his various names and attri- 
butes, 266 ; his mythic history, 267, 
268; his temple at Abou-Simbel, 295- 
298. 

Osirtesen I. , his sovereignty over Egypt, 
41, 42. 



INDEX. 



335 



Osirtesen II. and III., their achieve- 
ments in Ethiopia, 42. 

Paganism, decline of, in Egypt, 65, 
101, 102. 

Palgrave, W. G., description of Luxor 
and Karnak quoted, 221, 225. 

Pasht, the goddess, festival of, 24. 

Persian era of Egypt? 51-53. 

Pharaonic era of Egypt, 36-50. 

Pharos at Alexandria, and origin of the 
word, 55. 

Polycrates, King of Samos, his alliance 
with Aahmes, King of Egypt, 50. 

Pompey's Pillar, described, 104 ; its 
history, 104, 105 ; a relic of a former 
temple, 105, 106 ; sketch of the sur- 
rounding landscape, 106. 

Population, present, of Egypt, 33, 34. 

Priests, tombs of the, 216. 

Propertius, quoted, 61. 

Psammetichus L, his reign over Egypt, 
48, 49. _ 

Psammetichus II. completes the subju- 
gation of Ethiopia, 49. 

Ptolemy Epiphanes, 58 ; P. Euergetes, 
57 ; P. Philadelphus, 56, 57 ; P. Philo- 
metor, 58 ; P. Philopater, 57 ; P. 
Soter, 56; Ptolemy XII., 58, 59. 

Ptolemys, kings of Egypt, chronologi- 
cal table of, 61. 

Pyramids, their eternal freshness of 
attraction, 127, 128 ; their associa- 
tions, 128, 129 ; their probable origin, 
129-131 ; their massive construction, 
131-132 ; description of the Great 
Pyramid, 132-136 ; of the Second, 
136-140 ; of the Third, 140 : groups of 
pyramids, 140, 141 ; legends con- 
nected with them, 141, 142 ; mechani- 
cal skill displayed in their erection, 
142. 

Ramessids, the, Egypt under, 45, 46, 
33o. 

Rameses II., capture of Salem by, 45 ; 

his legendary fame, 45, 46 ; extent of 

his empire, 46. 
Rameses III., subdues an insurrection 

in Ethiopia, 47 ; his reign in Thebes, 

190, 191. 

Rameseioa, the, of Thebes, 194 ; its 
admirable position, 194 ; its dimen- 
sions and original splendour, 194, 
195 ; the Grand Hall, 197, 198 ; its 
sculptures and frescoes, 198-200. 

Rameseion, the Southern, of Thebes, 
particulars of, 204. 

Rapids, or Cataracts of the Nile, 83, 
8 4-. 

Religious creed of the Egyptians, 129, 

130, 245. 
Renan, Ernest, quoted, 146. 



Richardson, Dr., Travels along the 
Mediterraneatt Coast, quoted, 206, 
281, 299. 

Ritter, Carl, Erdkunde, quoted, 293. 

Roman era in Egyptian history, 62-66. 

Roman Senate, admittance of Egyp- 
tians into the, 63. 

Romer, Mrs., Tombs of Egypt, quoted. 
271, 287, 293. 

Russell, Dr., Nubia and Abyssinia, 310. 

Sabaco, King of Egypt, his alliance 
with Hoshea, King of Israel, 47, 48. 

Said Pasha, administration of, 72. 

Sebaste Caesareum,orTemple of Caesar, 
at Alexandria, remains of, 107. 

Seethee I., or Sethos, his conquests 
enumerated, 45. 

Senefern, King of Egypt, 38, 39. 

Serapeion, the, at Alexandria, destruc- 
tion of, 65. 

Serapeion, the, of Memphis, described, 
150 ; its avenue of sphinxes, 150, 
153 ; temple of Osiris- Apis, 153. 

Sethos, or Seethee, his arbitrary rule in 
Egypt, 48. 

Severus, the Roman Emperor, visit of, 
to Egypt, 63. 

Shakspeare, quoted, 74, 89. 

Sheikh-Abadeh, village of, founded by 
Hadrian, 176. 

Shepherd Kings of Egypt, their con- 
quest of the land, 44 ; expelled by 
Aahmes I. 

Sheshonk, or Shishak, plunders Jeru- 
salem, 191, 

Ship, the Sacred, description and alle- 
gorical meaning of, 310, 311. 

Shufu, King of Egypt, founder of the 
Great Pyramid, 40. 

Silsileh, the sandstone quarries of, 243, 
244. 

Siout, the capital of Upper Egypt, de- 
scribed, 176. 

Smith, Alexander, quoted, 115. 

Smith, Rev. A. C., The Nile and its 
Banks, quoted, 28, 37, 38, 97, 123, 
156, 164. 

Smyth, Professor Piazzi, The Great 
Pyramid, quoted, 129. 

Soil of Egypt, properties of the, 27. 

Soleb, temple of Amun-Raat, 303, 304. 

Soul, belief of the Egyptians in the im- 
mortality of the, 267. 

Sozomen, the historian, quoted, 65. 

Spenser, quoted, 249. 

Sphinx, the, described by W. H. Bart- 
lett, 143 ; by Harriet Martineau, 144 ; 
by A. W. Kinglake, 144-146 ; its 
dimensions, 146 ; its antiquit} r , 146, 
147 ; discoveries connected with it, 
146, 147 ; supposed erection of, by 
Thothmes IV., 44, 45. 



33^ 



INDEX. 



Stanley, Dean, on the ruins of Thebes, 
186 ; on the scenery around Thebes, 
187, 188 ; on the " Tombs of the 
Kings" at Thebes, 211. 

St. Hilaire, on the Nilotic mud, quoted, 
27- 

St. Jean d'Acre, besieged by Stopford 

and Napier, 70, 185. 
St. John, J. A., quoted, 179. 
Suez Canal, history and construction of. 

See Appendix. 

Tacitus, quoted, 46. 

Tarkus, King of Egypt, the Tirhakah 
of Ethiopia, 48. 

Temple at Dendera, 176-183 ; of Ra- 
meses, 204-206 ; at Medinet-Aboo, 
206; at Karnak, 218; at Luxor, 225; 
at Erment, 231; at Esneh, 233; at 
Edfoo, 241 ; at Hadjur Silsileh, 243 ; 
at Koum Ombos, 246-248; at Elephan- 
tine, 253 ; at Philae, 258-261 ; at De- 
bodeh, 280 ; at Kalabsche, 281 ; at 
Beyt-el-Wellee, 282; at Dendour, 283; 
at Girsche-Housseyn, 285 ; at Dak- 
keh, 287 ; at Derr, 292 ; at Abou- 
Simbel, 294-300; at Gebel-Adha, 301 ; 
at Wady Haifa, 302 ; at Soleb, 303 ; 
at Meroe, 305; at Wo ad Naja, 306; 
at El-Mesaourat, 308; at El-Khargeh, 
315; at El-Dakkel, 316 ; at El-Siwah, 
317; at Ummebeda, 318. 

Tennyson, Alfred, quoted, 13, 59, 92, 
108, 202. 

Thackeray, From Cornhill to Cairo, 
quoted, 127. 

Thebaid, the, its boundaries, 229 ; gene- 
ral features of, 229, 230. 

Thebes, city of, 186 ; its ruins described, 
186 ; origin of the name, 186, 187 ; its 
admirable situation, 187, 188 ; records 
of its annals, 188-193; tne Rameseion, 
described, 193-200 ; the two Colossi, 
200-203; the Thothmeseion, 204 ; the 
palace-temple of Rameses, 204-206; 
the temple at Medinet-Aboo, 206; a 
labyrinth of tombs, 206-210. 

Theodosius I., prohibits idol-worship, 
65. 

Thinite dynasty of Egypt, 37. 

Thomson, James, quoted, 312. 

Thothmes I. and II., their various 
achievements, 44; Thothmes III., 
his conquests in Syria and Mesopo- 



tamia, 44; Thothmes IV., erects the 

Sphinx, 44, 45. 
Thothmeseion, the, of Thebes, 204. 
Tombs at Thebes — See " Priests, tombs 

of ; " " Egyptian Queens, tombs of ; " 

" Bab-el- Melook, or Tomb of the 

Kings." 

Typhon, the Egyptian personification 

of Evil, 208. 
Typhoneion, the, at Dendera, 184. 

Ummebeda, Temple of Amun at, 318. 

Upper Egypt, its general aspect as de- 
scribed by Mr. Howard Hopley, 26, 
27. 

Vegetation, the, of Egypt, 27, 28. 
Victoria N'yanza, the, a source of the 

Nile, 79, 80. 
Vopiscus, the historian, quoted, 64. 
Vulture, the, or, "Pharaoh's Hen," 31, 

3 2 - 

Vyse, General Howard, On the Pyra- 
mids, quoted, 133. 

Wady Halfa, cataract and temple 
near, 302. 

Wady Sebou, ruins at, described, 290, 
291. 

Warburton, Eliot, The Crescent and 
the Cross, quoted, 69, 86, 141, 157, 
256, 293. 

Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, vuilta opera, 
quoted, 24, 41, 46, 48, 87, 131, 148, 
192, 215, 226, 244, 246, 267, 269, 283, 
285. 

Woad-Naja, architectural ruins at, 306, 
3°7- 

Wordsworth, William, quoted-, 163. 

Xerxes, King of Persia, crushes an 
insurrection in Egypt, 51. 

Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, conquers 
Egypt, 63 ; is herself defeated by 
Aurelian, 63. 

Ziczac, or " crocodile bird" of Herod- 
otus, 232, 233. 

Appendix. 

The Suez Canal, 321. 

On Egyptian Hieroglyphics, 325. 

The Ramessids, 330. 



INDEX, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The Engravbigs marked thus (*) occupy whole pages. 
Frontispiece — Cairo, Capital of Egypt. 



Pag-e 

i.*A Landscape in the Delta 17 

2 A Sacred Dance 24 

3. Date Palms 28 

4. The Sacred Ibis = 29 

5. The Egyptian Vulture 30 

6. Group of Rosy Flamingoes .... 31 

7. Caravan caught by the Khamsin 33 

8. Mount Sinai 39 

9. Tirhakah, King of Egypt v from 

the Monuments, 48 

10. Herodotus from an ancient bust) 51 

11. Alexander the Great Trom Ca- 

nini's Iconografia> 55 

12. Ptolemy Soter v Visconti's Icono- 

graphie Grecque ) 56 

13. Ptolemy Philopater (from Vis- 

conti] 57 

14. Ptolemy Euergetes (from Vis- 

conti) 57 

15. Julius Caesar (from Visconti).. 59 

16. Marcus Antonius 'fromVisconti) 60 

17. Cleopatra (from Visconti) 60 

18. Germanicus from a Medal in the 

Florentine Museum) 62 

19. Zenobia v from a Medal in the 

Florentine Museum) 63 

20. The Emperor Aurelian (from a 

Medal in the Florentine Mu- 
seum) 64 

21. *Massacre of the Mamelukes. .. 67 

22. * View of St. Jean d'Acre 71 

23. *A Landscape on the Nile 75 

24. *The Murchison Falls on theNile 81 

25. Statue of the Nile (in theVatican 

Museum) 88 

26. A Papyrus Shallop 88 

27. The Mystic Ferry-Boat 91 

28. Ancient Pharos at Alexandria.. 93 

29. *Alexandria 95 

30. Arab Women in the Streets of 

Alexandria 98 

31. Pompey's Pillar 105 

32. Cleopatra's Needles 107 

33. Tombs of Khalifs, and Citadel of 

Cairo , 114 

34/Mosque of the Sultan Hassan 

at Cairo 115 

35. The Muezzin announcing the 

hour of Prayer 117 

36. A Street in Cairo 119 

37. A Dancing Dervish 120 

38. ^The Ass-Drivers of Cairn 121 



Page 

"Interior of a Harem at Cairo . . 126 

The Pyramids 128 

Diagram 131 

Ancient Egyptian Mode of Con- 
veying Stones 131 

Section of the Great Pyramid 
of Ghizeh 133 



"The Pyramid of Chephren, and 

the Sphinx 137 

The Sphinx 144 

*The Serapeion, Memphis 151 

Bronzes of the Egyptian god 

Apis 

Balm of Gilead 



53 
157 



159 



51. Cartouche of Thothmes III 

52. *The Sakia, or Egyptian Water- 

Wheel , 161 

53. A View of Beni-Souef 165 

54. * A View of Minyeh . 169 

55. Beni-Hassan: Neoothph'sTomb 

(Exterior) 171 

56. Beni-Hassan: Neoothph'sTomb 

(Interior) 172 

57. Egyptians Spinning ; Egyptian 

Weaving 173 

58. Egyptian Potter 173 

59. Brick-Makers from a Tomb at 

Beni-Hassan) 175 

60. *Scene at Siout 177 

61. Propylon of the Temple at Den- 

dera 179 

62. *Temple at Dendera 181 

63. Isis or Athor, with the infant 

Horus 183 

64. Amun-Ra, the Sun-God 187 

65. *The Rameseion of Thebes, and 

Colossal Statue of Rameses.. 195 

66. Operations of a Siege 199 

67. The Colossi, or Ramessids .... 201 

68. The Colossi during an Inunda- 

tion 203 

69. The Thothmeseion at Medinet- 

Aboo, Thebes 205 

70. *Bab-el-Melook, or Valley of the 

Tombs of the Kings, Thebes 207 

71. Egyptian Masons 215 

72. Ruins at Karnak 217 

73. Propylon at Karnak 219 

74. Great Court and Obelisk of 

Karnak 220 



333 



INDEX. 



75- 
76. 

77- 
78. 



Page 

"River- View of Luxor 223 

"The Ramessids at Luxor 227 

The Trochilus, or Crocodile 
Bird 233 

Judgment of Souls, and their 
Future Destiny (from the Sar- 
cophagus of Alexander) 240 

Temple of Noum and Athor, at 
Edfoo 242 

Temple of Arveris, at Koum 
Ombos 247 

Distant View of the Island of 

Philae 255 

* Temple of Isis, Island of Phi- 
lae 259 

Horus. Isis, and Osiris 261 



Page 

84. Temple of Osiris at Philae 262 

85. Temple Court at Philae 263 

86. First Cataract of the Nile 273 

87. Portrait of Mehemet Ali 279 

88. Romano-Egyptian Temple at 

Dendour 284 

89. Sacred Scarabaeus of the Egyp- 

tians 285 

90. Temple of Osiris, Ipsambul.. . . 294 

91. Interior of Temple of Osiris, 

Ipsambul 295 

92. A Ramessid at Ipsambul 296 

93. Temple of Isis at Ipsambul .... 298 

94. Temple of Amun-Ra, Soleb. ... 303 

95. Temple at Meroe 306 

96. Chart of the Suez Canal 322 



With Map of the Kile Valley, Headpieces &c. 




I v Q iqZC 





f 

i 



